In the Shadow of the Knight
by ShatteredxDreams411
Summary: It seemed as though Abby's life was perfect with her boyfriend,loving parents,and caring friends. That picture drastically changes when a certain clown comes into the picture. Now she must question where her morality stands. ON HIATUS.
1. Don't Look Back

WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NOT READ "MY HERO IS YOU" THEN YOU MAY BE CONFUSED. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU READ IT BEFORE YOU START TO READ THIS, BUT IT IS NOT REQUIRED.

* * *

Don't Look Back

It was dark. Not a word was shared between friends in anticipation of what was to come. Their hearts raced faster and faster as they walked closer to the light ahead of them. It felt as if hours had drug on until they finally stopped at the edge of the light.

"Now," the announcer said over the intercom, "joining us here in Metropolis to go against our team is, all the way from Gotham, Gotham High's Bulldogs!"

The crowd's cheers echoed through Abigail Wayne's ears like shouts in a canyon. She smiled as her and the rest of her team mates continued out into the stadium. They waved at each familiar face they saw towards the visitors' side of the spacious gym. Once they all sat down in a spot on the bench, someone gave a slight nudge towards Abby.

She turned her head to Aaron West, her long-time best friend and boyfriend.

"So, are you nervous?" he asked her.

"Psh! No," she denied in best voice she could, but was unfortunately unsuccessful.

"You're lying. It's okay to be nervous, heck even I'm nervous."

"Anxious is the word to describe this feeling. This is our last game for crying out loud! And it's in Metropolis, the home of Superman!"

"Hey, what's the competition? We've got Batman on our side."

Abby laughed slightly. "True."

For as long as Abby had known Aaron, he had always had the special gift of making her feel better even in the roughest of times. Whether it was his genuine smile or his optimistic personality, he always seemed to make her smile. They had been dating for at least a year now and they were still going strong.

"All right team, gather in!" their boxing mentor, Coach Jeff hollered.

Every one huddled around the coach without one question.

"Look, I know since you think that you've made it this far you can just slack off without getting your cans kicked. Well…I'll tell you right now, you're dead wrong. I want to see each and every one of you giving it all!" he almost demanded. "If I don't see any of you giving it all you can then I'll just pull you out of the rink with no questions asked. It took us one whole plane ride to get here. I don't want to see all of the money that Mr. Wayne donated to get us here go to waste within the next few hours."

"Coach?" Adam Benedict piped up. "When are you going to get to the part where you start to encourage us?"

"I was getting there," the coach answered turning back to the rest of the team. "This is our last chance to show what we're made of. I want all of you to give the best performance that you've ever given in your boxing career. Devin Wolfe, as you know, this is her last year of Gotham High before she goes off into that crazy thing we call life. This may be your last game of the year, but this is probably the last game in her life that she'll ever compete in depending whether or not she'll go to the pros. Live this day as if it were your last…or else you'll regret it. That's all I have to say, Devin, please lead the team into the cheer."

Devin emerged in front of him. "Alright guys, are you ready?"

All of them shouted back, "Ready for what?"

"To show Metropolis what we're made of! Gotham!"

"High!"

"Gotham!"

"High!"

"Gotham High!"

"Bulldogs!"

Everyone cheered as the announcer once again spoke over the intercom.

"Please take your seats as the match begins."

Following the orders of the announcer, Abby along with rest of the team took their seats. Once she sat down her nerves once again caught up with her again. Before even realizing it, a warm hand wrapped around Abby's. She looked up to face Aaron's reassuring face.

"Relax," he whispered to her. "Everything's going to be fine. We're gonna make it through this."

"You always say that."

"Yeah, but I mean it every time."

Again, Abby's nerves were relaxed because of his voice.

"Wayne!" Coach Jeff called. "You're up!"

Her coach's voice snapped her from her current trance, causing her to nearly jump from her seat. After Aaron had given her one light kiss on her forehead, Abby made her way to the edge of the rink where Coach Jeff stood.

"So who am I up against, Coach?" was the first thing Abby asked him before putting on her headgear.

"Sam Young. Smart kid, but he's got an ego."

"Story of my life," she tucked in her mouth guard under her teeth.

"Be careful: he's very decisive and…somewhat distracting."

"I've been doing this for about a year Coach, I think I have this system down."

"If you say so, Wayne."

"May the first competitors please enter the rink," the referee called.

Once Abby had her gloves on, she jumped up into the rink.

"Keep your eyes on the prize, Wayne!" her coach shouted behind her.

When the referee signaled for her to, she walked towards the center of the rink to face her competitor. Under the headgear she could see Sam Young's flashing his bright blue eyes at her. Ignoring him, she refocused her attention to the referee who was going over the rules she had at least heard a thousand times. Once he had finished he went to the side for one moment.

"Hey, you're Abby Wayne, aren't you?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah and you're Sam Young. Small world isn't it?" she answered him sourly.

"Relax. There's no need to fight with our words; we're gonna be fighting with our fists anyway."

"That's what I'm counting on."

On the referee's signal, they got into position.

"We'll see what the princess has got under her sleeve," he hissed.

"I'm wearing a tank top, you idiot."

Without realizing it, the referee's whistle had blown and Sam's fist came colliding with her face. Although caught off guard, Abby jabbed him just above his belt. In return he punched her in the shoulder causing her to slightly flinch. He could sure hit hard. She could feel a bruise slowly emerging from her arm.

"Why so shocked, Princess? Was it the punch or the charm?"

"No. The fact that you are a bigger idiot than I thought."

With that she swung her fist over to his face. He didn't even need a second to react. Sam jabbed her on her side. There was no time for pain, she kept telling herself. Just wincing in pain would give him an opportunity to cause her more pain. As if it were an instant reaction, she hit him in the neck.

Shortly rubbing his neck, he said to her, "Man, Wayne, I didn't know you had a heck of a punch."

"First of all, you don't know me and second of all, you could say I have a friend in the shadows who taught me a couple things."

Taking this opportunity of his weakness, Abby quickly punched him twice on the sides of his stomach. Sam hugged his abdominal area, groaning in pain. Just when she thought he had given up, his fist thrust deep into her stomach causing to fall to the ground. Everything was now turning into a blur.

"Abby, c'mon get up!" she heard now distant voices call.

Her eye fought to stay open. She could now hear the referee counting backwards from ten. Abby had to get up. People were counting on her. She couldn't let them down. Allowing the pain to encompass her stomach, she got up to her feet.

"Bet you didn't see that coming did ya?" Sam smiled smugly at her.

Her only reply was a swing at his face. He ducked his head before hitting her once again in the stomach. She involuntarily winced in pain. He punched her again, only causing her to be caught off balance for a few moments. Abby had now seen his game. He created an Achilles heel for his opponents in order for it to be easier to take them down. She smirked to herself…two can play at that game. Without expecting it this time, Sam took another punch at her stomach. Getting down to her knees she hugged her stomach in pain.

"Look, Wayne let's make it easier on both of us: withdraw from the match and go home to your rich daddy."

Abby looked up at him with desperate eyes. "I guess that would be easier."

"That's a good girl," he said with triumph in his voice. "Now go tell the referee you want out."

"Okay, that sounds good," she nodded standing straight up.

She had only turned around for a second when Sam said something very undesirable.

"And so the princess finally runs to her castle."

Although it was a small mutter, Abby heard it loud and clear. It was time. She spun around, hitting her fist against his face. She didn't stop there though. Abby hit him in any place possible—or what was allowed in the rules. It was as if there was a monster inside of her that she couldn't control and made Sam unable to fight back. Sure, he tried, but it seemed worthless since she could since where he was hitting. Abby finally stopped. Sam stood there, wobbling on his feet. He swung his fist not only to Abby, but to collapse to the ground as well.

The referee got down to Sam's side counting down from ten. "…Three, two, one. Gotham takes the first point!"

Everybody on the visitors' side cheered at this announcement. Abby smiled victoriously to herself as she exited the rink.

A hand firmly patted her back. "Great job, Wayne. Get some rest, will you?"

She recognized the voice as Coach Jeff. "Sure thing, Coach."

After setting her gear to the side of the rink, Abby felt her body being lifted off of the ground.

"Aaron!" she nearly screamed. "What are you doing?"

She knew it was him. She knew that tight grip anywhere.

"I'm giving you a victory hug!" Aaron replied with enthusiasm.

"The victory is done and over with, and so should this hug…so would you please put me down?"

"Fine," he placed her gently back on the ground. "But I'm not exactly done with you yet."

"I was kinda counting on that," she said before turning to kiss him passionately.

Aaron returned the kiss, but just as he did an annoyed voice came up from behind them. "Eh!"

They parted from their kiss and saw Adam's disgusted expression. Abby blushed in embarrassment while Aaron smiled guiltily towards him.

"Sorry man," Aaron apologized.

His apology didn't seem to faze Adam's expression one bit. "Why is it that every time I try to come to say a simple hello, I always catch you two sucking each other's faces?"

"We don't _suck_each other's faces," argued Abby.

"You just happen to catch us in a very bad time each time you come over," Aaron reasoned.

"That's for sure," Adam sighed. "Anyway Aaron, can I borrow your gloves? Mine got ripped up by my dog."

"Sure, I'll be right back."

Abby spoke as soon as Aaron left. "So are you up next?"

He nodded nervously. "Yeah."

"You'll do great. Don't worry about it, you're a good boxer."

"Thanks, but I'm not really nervous about the match."

"Then what are you nervous about?"

"My sister's getting married and supposed to say a toast after the ceremony and all that, but I have no idea what to say. To add to that I hardly even know the guy that going to be my brother-in-law soon."

"That is something to be nervous about. I'm sorry, I can't help you. I don't have any experience with this kind of stuff and I don't want to throw you off."

His face fell. "You don't know what to do either. It's okay."

"But Sasha does," she quickly added. "Her mom just got married a couple years ago…maybe she could help you with the toast thing."

Adam only shrugged before Aaron returned with his gloves.

"Here you go, man." Aaron handed Adam the gloves.

"Thanks, I'll talk to you guys later."

"See ya," they said as Adam went in the opposite direction.

"Ugh!" Abby groaned. "I feel so stupid!"

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "And why would you feel that way?"

"Adam asked for advice about his sister's wedding, but I completely blew him off."

"I'm pretty sure you didn't blow him off."

"Not exactly, but I still couldn't help him."

"It's okay," he reassured. "It's better than giving him false information."

"You're right…but I still wish I could've helped him."

"We can't all help everyone, Abs. C'mon, let's go sit down and watch the rest of the match."

Abby silently agreed with him by following him over to the bench. The rest of the match went on so-and-so. Gotham lost some and won some at the same time, but thankfully it wasn't enough to put them too far behind Metropolis. Actually they were in a dead tie with them. One more match and the game would be over. Abby could feel Aaron tightening his grip on her hand as the team waited for their coach to announce which one of them would go up next.

"Are you trying to make my hand fall off or something?" she nearly snapped at him.

"Sorry," he loosened his grip. "This is the last match and I haven't gone at all tonight."

"What makes you think that he's gonna choose you?"

Before Aaron had the chance to answer, Coach Jeff's booming voice intervened. "West! C'mon up here!"

"Didn't I tell you?" he muttered to Abby.

She pulled him in for a hug before he got up from his seat. "You're gonna do great. Just stay focused and don't let anything distract you."

"Will do."

Aaron headed over to the coach once Abby had let go of him. She observed him as Aaron spoke to the coach.

"So, Aaron's up next, huh?" said Devin's voice.

Abby looked back at Devin who had seated herself in Aaron's seat. "Yeah, apparently he's the last one for the night."

"Shouldn't be that bad. It's just like any other match he's been in."

"Yes, but there's one huge difference: he's never done a time-breaker like this before."

"True, but it's not like we're on the brink of World War III either."

She took one more glance at Aaron as he entered the rink. "It's not just that. For as long as I have known him, he's never had to be relied on before. Sure his parents leave him to take care of his little sister sometimes, but it's mostly left to Jared to carry the rest of the family it seems like."

"Jared? Please," Devin snorted. "All he's good for is…oh that's right he's a good-for-nothing jerk."

Abby bit her lip. "Sorry I forgot you guys broke up a couple months ago."

"It's alright. I'm over it. I just can't get over how immature he is ninety-percent of the time. Anyway, Aaron's a good kid and a boxer. He will be fine."

"OK…I'm gonna go watch him now…you know to give him encouragement."

"Sure, you go ahead and do that. I'll just steam off for awhile."

Abby gave a quick nod in agreement before leaving. She had thought two months was long enough not to mention Jared in a conversation with Devin, but apparently not. Although she tried to hide it, she did sound a little tense. Oh well, maybe she just wouldn't mention Jared ever again to Devin to allow her to cool off for a few moments.

She stood beside Adam as he observed the commotion in the rink.

"So, did I miss anything?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "Not much. They've already started fighting if it tells you that much."

_Thump!_ A body suddenly collapsed to the rink's floor. Abby's eyes widened when she realized who the body was.

"C'mon Aaron, get up!" she called out to him. "You can do it!"

Thankfully, he wasn't unconscious so he got back up to his feet as fast he fell. But just as he did, Aaron was hit in the eye. Abby flinched at the sight. _That's gotta hurt._ Apparently Aaron didn't let that distract him. His fist headed towards his face, but his opponent had hit him at the waist. He fell back to the ground.

Abby pleaded back to him. "C'mon, Aaron! If you got up once you can get up again!"

The referee came up and began to time Aaron's collapse. "Ten…nine…eight…"

"You can do it, Aaron! It's only one more minute!"

"…seven…six…five…"

Aaron slowly curled his upper body off of the ground. His shaking arms looked as if they could fall off any instant.

"…four…three…"

He was so close. Only more push off of the ground and the match was solid. If only things had turn out that way. His back collapsed to the ground.

"…Metropolis takes victory for this round!"

Abby saw Aaron slowly close his eyes. She immediately jumped up into the rink and headed to Aaron's side.

"Aaron, are you alright?" she urgently asked.

"I lost," he moaned quietly.

"It's okay…there will be other matches."

"I made us lose."

"No, you didn't. The judges haven't even tallied up the points yet."

He opened his eyes. "I had a chance to get us ahead and I blew it."

"C'mon," she offered him a hand, "let's splash you with a bucket of water so you can get your sense back."

Chuckling, Aaron lent his gloved hand back to Abby. Using both of her hands, she pulled him off of the ground and led him back the benches. It was not much of a surprise to Abby when their teammates clapped for Aaron as they passed by them. As soon as they got to the spot where they were sitting at previously, she quickly grabbed his water bottle and handed it to him.

Abby spoke to him as he took a sip from his water. "Do not worry. Everything's going to be fine. Just like you said to me before the match."

"I didn't expect Coach to…put me in that…"

"I know no one did…but that's no reason for you to go beating yourself up for it."

"I know, it's just that—"

The announcer interrupted Aaron on his tracks. "And the score for tonight's game is…Metropolis in second place and Gotham in first!"

A roar came from the crowd around them. Relief swept over Abby features.

She beamed towards him. "See? It's not so bad, is it?"

"I guess not," his lips barely lifted into a smile.

"C'mon let's go and celebrate with everyone else."

He briefly nodded before following behind Abby.

Abby and Aaron walked along the pavement of Metropolis's sidewalks soon after Coach Jeff granted them permission to venture the city. They only rule they had been to return by ten. As she walked through the large city, Abby couldn't help but notice how…bright the city was. Even in this dark of a night it was still glimmering. Unlike Gotham that was gloomy and grim no matter what phase of the day it was. Although there were a few nice places downtown you had to look very hard to spot them.

"No wonder Superman has such good luck here," she said aloud from her thoughts.

"And why is that?" Aaron asked.

"It's too easy to spot crime where ever you go. This city is squeaky clean unlike Gotham where you actually have to try and look for crime if you're a cop or Batman for that matter."

"You know when you've grown up in a city like that and your dad is a cop, you tend to spot trouble very easily."

"OK, I'll give you that. How is your dad handling crime these days?"

"Pretty well with Batman cleaning up the streets…although my dad does express some concern about him since he's some messed up guy in a cape. You'll never know what could happen."

"Yeah…but just because he breaks the law doesn't mean that he's gonna stab us in the back. He really wants to help us."

"How would you know what he wants?"

Abby hated this part about keeping a secret. You always had to lie to the ones you love in order to keep others safe. Her father, Bruce Wayne, was one of the world's richest men and yet was vigilante at night as the Batman himself. She had promised to keep his identity a secret, but the job was not as easy as it sounded. Even now, a year later, Abby still struggled with it.

"When…I met him a year ago, he didn't strike me as the guy who would the one to bring Gotham to flames."

That explanation would have to do for now.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Yeah, but that was a year ago. People can change easily in that period of time."

"What exactly makes you think that he's a criminal then?" she questioned him.

Aaron opened his mouth to say something, but was lost for words.

Abby continued, smirking. "See? You never know. I mean Renee could turn around one day and decide to be friends with us."

They stared at each other for a few moments and then burst into laughter. Renee Kendal and Abby had, what you could say, a history together. It began in kindergarten when Renee put super-glue on Abby's seat and continued on to a week ago when Renee poured gallons of sticky red punch all over Abby's hair just moments before her presentation in English. To this day, Abby still didn't understand why Renee did those deeds to her. It didn't matter anyway. As long as she got an opportunity to get back at Renee, she would still have her sanity.

"Good one, Abs," Aaron said between laughs. "You truly are the comedian."

"I try."

"C'mon, we should get back before it's too late."

"No…not yet anyway. I still want a few more minutes of freedom left before we head home tomorrow morning."

"Fine, but where are we gonna go? The mall is closed and we won't have enough time to see a movie."

"Who said we had to do those things? We could just keep walking and see what we run into."

"Yeah and with your luck we'll run into some insanity case."

Her fist pounded into his shoulder. "Not funny."

"Ow!" he rubbed his shoulder. "OK, maybe I deserved that, but you didn't have to hit so hard."

"It was mean and you know it."

"All right, I'm sorry. C'mon let's just head on back. We don't have anything left in this place anyway unless you're trying to get a glimpse of Superman or something."

"Nah, one masked hero is enough for me, thank-you."

"Well let's go then. We'll need enough rest for the plane ride home."

"I guess you're right. I just don't want to go home so soon."

"I know, but everyone needs to come home sometime."

"Where ever that is. I have two if you remember."

"I meant Gotham in general," he answered quickly.

"It's okay," she reassured him. "We should be getting back before our curfew ends."

Aaron reluctantly nodded in agreement as she took his hand. They turned back on the path they had walked previously and headed towards the hotel they were staying at. In some ways, Abby was happy to return home to see her family and friends again, but in other ways she would miss her escape from her life. Oh well, she would have to keep looking ahead and never look back in order to cope with the sudden changes in her life.


	2. Look Ahead

Look Ahead

Although Abby and Aaron had arrived just on time for their curfew, Abby still stayed up late with Devin watching a movie and if that didn't do it Abby stayed up after the movie texting Sasha and Heather. Basically, she was exhausted and now she rested her head on Aaron shoulder, sleeping. It seemed to be cut short when the flight attendant announced that they would be arriving in Gotham soon. Abby moved her head from Aaron's shoulder and began gathering her bag.

"So, are you going to do anything when you get home?" asked Aaron.

"Probably just sleep and pack some more."

"Oh that's right you're going over to your dad's for the month, right?"

She nodded. "Yup and it'll be time away from _him_."

Aaron didn't seem to bother to ask whom she was referencing to. Besides he already knew. "Are you still holding up that bad-kid act against him?"

"If you mean trying to convince him to stop dating my mom, then yes," she smiled deviously.

"Hate to tell you the bad news, Abs: Harvey Dent has been dating your mom for almost a year now. I'd think he would've given up by now if didn't tolerate with you."

That's right. The infamous Harvey Dent was in a relationship with her mother, Rachel Dawes. Abby didn't understand nor accept the relationship. There were many reasons why she felt this way. One being that Dent was Rachel's boss and they started dating within the first month he was hired. According to her past relationship with the former DA, Carl Finch, Abby felt that it would end the same way. The second reason was much more personal, but she would not let her mind travel to the impossible thought.

"He only tolerates with me because I'm my mother's daughter. If I wasn't, I'm pretty sure he would put me aside as he's done with a bunch of other Gotham citizens."

"Um…Can I say that he's Gotham's DA and that accusation might be wrong without being slapped in the face?"

Abby looked at him as if it were obvious. "Probably not."

"I'll keep my mouth shut then."

"But didn't your dad say that his coworkers made up almost the same accusation as me."

"They called him Harvey Two-Face, but that's hardly the point. Why do you hate him so much?"

"It's not that I hate him, it's just that…"

Abby stopped speaking when she felt a smooth dive inward. She looked out the window to find the Gotham City Airport to be only a few seconds away.

"What was that you wanted to say about Harvey?"

She sighed. "Oh…never mind. It can wait. What about you? What are doing when you get home?"

He only shrugged. "Probably just catch up on some homework and work on my guitar. Nothing that much special."

"What are you talking about? Writing songs is something special, Aaron."

"Yeah, but it won't exactly pay the bills once I'm older."

Once again, Abby was interrupted by the plane action. It landed roughly on the ground, gliding towards its appropriate port.

"We should probably get ready to go," Aaron suggested.

Abby mutely agreed, placing her bag on her lap. They remained silent as they waited for the plane to make a full and complete stop. Silence still took over as they exited the plane and made their way to pick up their luggage. Abby didn't see why they suddenly went quiet. She only said that his talent on the guitar was special. Was there something else she said that was wrong? Before Abby could ask him the exact question, a familiar tall figure came and rubbed his elbow on Aaron's head.

"Hey there, little buddy!" the tall boy said.

"Hey there, Jared," Aaron grumbled.

Jared smiled mischievously towards his brother. Abby had known Jared as long as she had known Aaron. He served as a brother to her in that respect, but there times like this where she just couldn't stand him.

Jared looked towards Abby. "Oh, did I interrupt something between you two?" His hand roughly ruffled though her thick hair. "Because if I did, I am very sorry."

She forcefully pushed his moving hand from her head. "Maybe I would accept your apology if you didn't try to make my hair messier than it is every time you lay your eyes on me."

"Just trying to be friendly to my little bro's girl."

"Yeah, do me a favor and try to be a little less friendly."

Abby's hands frantically began to fix now frizzed ponytail.

"Geez, you girls and your hair," Jared muttered.

_It's no wonder Devin broke up with you_. Abby rolled her eyes.

"C'mon, Jare. Leave her alone," Aaron spoke up.

"Why? It's not like she's insulted. Unlike other girls she actually grew up around my charm."

"Ew! Do not involve me and your charm in the same sentence please!" Abby snapped at him.

Jared looked to Aaron. "See? A little grossed out, but not offended."

Abby groaned. Jared was being especially annoying today for some strange reason. For being seventeen years old and graduating high school later that year, he was supposed to be a good example for sophomores like them. Ha! Probably in an alternate universe, but never in this life.

Aaron's annoying brother took a look at his watch. "Oh shoot! We have to go. Mom is expecting us in like five minutes!"

"But my plane just got here," he defended.

"Yes, but you're going say that your plane was delayed."

Abby crossed her arms. "What are you up to Jare?"

"That…is none of your business. C'mon, Aaron, let's go get your luggage and head on out."

Aaron pulled her in for a short embrace. "I'll see you later, Abs."

"We live four houses from each other," she whispered to him. "I think later is tonight. Oh and good luck in your brother's latest scheme."

"I think it's gonna take a lot more than luck to save me from Jared…but I'll definitely see you tonight."

They separated from their hug and with one final good-bye, Aaron walked off with Jared. Abby continued on to find her luggage at the Baggage Claim center.

When she had all of her things, she waited in the entrance room in search of her mother. She looked at her cell phone for the time. That was strange. For her whole life, Rachel had never been late to anything. Abby hoped there was nothing wrong. Living in Gotham made you worried every time a loved one walked out the door. She didn't worry as much for her mother since being the assistant DA made her face thugs that could twist you both physically and mentally everyday without fear made her stronger than she appeared, but the risks were just as high. Her worries soon went to rest when she saw Rachel overlooking the crowd. Abby quickly headed in that direction.

Once Abby caught Rachel's eye, she smiled. "Hello, Sweetheart, how was your trip?"

"A little bit exhausting, I'll admit…but we won!"

"That's great, Hon!" Rachel embraced her. "I'm so proud of you!"

"Thanks," Abby hugged her back before they pulled apart.

"C'mon, let's get to the car before I get a ticket for parking in the drop off zone."

With Rachel's help, Abby grabbed all of over luggage and rushed to the car waiting by the curb.

Thankfully nobody had caught her mother in the act. Abby wouldn't even have considered it to be illegal since her mother was only parked there for only a few minutes and brought no inconvenience to the other drivers. During the drive home, Abby explained the events that had happened in Metropolis. Although she left out some details like Aaron's depressive attitude afterwards, she told her the details of how the close the match was and how different Metropolis was to Gotham.

"You see, Abby? If Gotham gets its act together like Metropolis we could be living in peace like them."

"Yeah, but they obviously have crime too since they have Superman taking care of them," Abby pointed out.

"True, but it's a lot better than having a bat clean our city," she said, almost with disgust.

"C'mon, Mom. Dad has done a lot to keep this city safe and—"

"You mean Batman."

"Fine, _Batman_ has done a lot to keep this city safe and clear of lunatics."

"Yes, but he doesn't consider the law at hand."

"If he did, Gotham would be no different than it was a year ago. Why are you so against Dad being Batman anyway?"

"I'm not against him. I just don't believe that he should endanger the ones he loves."

"He's got a mask on. I'm pretty sure no idiot is dumb enough to find out who he is."

"Nonetheless, he is still putting his life on the line."

Abby hated it when Rachel suddenly became an anti-Batman fan. She could see her reasons though. The man that she loves fighting for his life every night could be pretty nerve racking. Maybe that's why Rachel decided to keep her distance from Bruce. After visiting the rubble of the once great Wayne Manor, Abby hadn't really seen Rachel have contact with Bruce other than to drop her off at the penthouse for the month and vice versa. They didn't exactly fight…they were just distant. Perhaps Bruce's identity as Batman was too much for Rachel to handle.

"So anyway," she let out a heavy sigh, "I thought since tonight was your last night for the month that maybe we could go out."

"Sure, where do you wanna go?"

"Well, Harvey and I were thinking a little Chinese food or something."

Abby froze. "Harvey?"

"Yeah, he's gonna join us if you don't mind."

"Actually, on second thought I'll just hang out at home. I'm tired anyway."

Although Rachel was looking towards the road, Abby could see her narrowing eyes. "Then how come you were so accepting to the idea until I brought up Harvey?"

"I—I didn't realize how tired I was until it was too late."

"You don't want to see Harvey yet, don't you?"

Abby looked out her window. "I've already seen Harvey plenty of times."

"I mean you've never had an encounter with him for longer than five minutes."

"Right…I just don't think I'm ready yet."

"Look, I understand that this is a little hard to take in for you but I would really like for you to meet Harvey officially. He's a really nice guy."

"No thanks. I can live with or without officially meeting him tonight. Maybe another time."

"Fine, but don't expect me to warn you next time."

"Then don't expect me to show you my report card," she muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," she gave a big innocent smile.

They soon drove into the driveway of their small two story home. It was very simple home that was painted a light yellow all over. From a distance it would seem old, but on the inside it was very sturdy and stable. Plus Rachel took pride in the house. It was the first and only place she had moved in on her own since Abby had been born.

Abby along with Rachel grabbed her luggage and began to drag it up to her room. The house was clean as always, but when they arrived into her room it was quite a different story. Most of her clothes lied on the floor, her bed was unmade, and her desk was messier than every with a bunch of useless papers that Abby had not yet come around to throwing away yet.

"Okay, Abs since you're not coming to dinner with Harvey and I, may I suggest that you clean up this room?"

Abby quirked an eyebrow at her. "Was that even a suggestion?"

"No. This room really needs to be cleaned up."

"Sorry, I've been busy."

"Well, you're free now so maybe you should get moving now since you're going over to your father's tomorrow."

"Fair enough. Then I'll come down and eat leftovers or something."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll be downstairs if you need me."

With that, Rachel left the room leaving Abby alone in her messy room. Turning on her music from her iPod, she began to sort out her room.

Only hours had gone by and she wasn't any closer to cleaning her room. She had a much wider variety of junk than she had thought before. All day Abby had gone in and out of her room to ask Rachel if she had any knowledge of the object she was asking about. It even got to a point where Rachel nearly locked Abby in her room. With it being nearly four in the afternoon, Abby felt that the room was clean enough and crashed onto her bed. Her eyes closed as exhaustion finally took over.

Her eyes snapped open again when she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. She picked up without reading the caller ID.

"Hello?" she nearly moaned.

"Hey, it's me," said a familiar voice.

"Oh, hey Aaron. Sorry I just woke up from a nap."

"I see. How long were you out?"

"I don't know. What time is it?"

"It's nearly six."

"Then I've been out for about two hours."

"Nice, so do you wanna come over and hang out? You can stay for dinner too if you want."

"Sure, let me just clear it up with my mom and I'll be over in a few minutes."

"All right, see ya then."

She closed the phone, walking out of her room.

It was no lie that it was six in the evening. All the lights in the house were on and everything else outside was dark. Abby looked around the house for Rachel, but she was nowhere to be found. Her last place to look was in the kitchen where she found a yellow note taped to the refrigerator. She looked closer at it. The note read:

_Out with Harvey. Leftovers are in the frig. See you tonight._

_Love, Mom_

She sighed. Oh well, no use in telling Rachel where she was going. She was probably at the restaurant now. Abby would just go over to Aaron's and come back before Rachel did. Simple plan really….but it could be flawed. In that case, Abby wrote a quick note letting her know of her whereabouts. After scribbling the note down, Abby headed out taking anything that she would need.

There was no discomfort walking down her street in the dark of night. The streetlights were brightly lit every night and everyone was usually in their home so in the first sign of trouble her neighbors would be the first to call the police. It wasn't exactly the safest nor was it the most dangerous neighborhood in Gotham. Sure it had a couple incidents where a couple of robbers sped through and a young girl was almost kidnapped, but the culprits didn't live in the neighborhood so there wasn't much to worry about. Besides Abby had learned how to ride her first bike here so she felt more than comfortable walk freely through the neighborhood.

As soon as Abby approached Aaron's front door, her finger lightly pushed the doorbell. Within moments Abby heard scrambling feet going to the front door. The door swung open revealing a brunette woman.

Abby smiled at her. "Hey, Mrs. West."

"Hello Abby," Mrs. West smiled back. "Well, don't be a stranger, come on in."

Carrie West was small woman, but yet sturdy. She had blonde hair and green eyes which she passed onto Aaron. Every time Abby had seen her (including now), Carrie had always been covered in paint or have splatters of it on her clothes or hands.

Abby walked into the house as Carrie set herself aside. "So how are you, Mrs. West?

"Busy. I've got a showcase in a week and very little time to plan a flight for both me and my paintings over to Chicago."

"I heard you got qualified to go over there. How is your art coming along?"

"Great. I only have two more paintings to complete and I will be home free."

"That's great. So is Aaron upstairs?"

"Yep, right in his room. Tell him that dinner is almost ready and his father is on his way home."

"Will do, Mrs. West."

Aaron's mother didn't have to tell her where to go. Abby had known the place as if it were her own. It looked very similar to Rachel's home, but at the same time had its own entity. Plus the house was slightly bigger because of the size difference of the two families. As she walked up the stairs and through the hallway, she began to hear guitar strumming. She smiled. Abby loved it when he played his guitar. She didn't know what it was, but it would always make her serene.

She attentively listened as he played his guitar in the doorway. He sat on his bed with his guitar at hand.

"I can't breathe…I feel like I'm gonna die," he sang. "I wanna say things are getting better, but that would be a lie…I can see the clouds closing in…The darkness taking over…I wanna get out…I don't want to see anybody suffer anymore—"

"Wow, I didn't know you were this depressed," Abby remarked.

Aaron jumped. "Whoa! Where did you come from?"

"Well let's see…when my parents were in high school they started having feelings for each other and—"

"I mean when did you get here?"

She sat herself next to him. "A few minutes ago."

"So, you heard the song."

"Yeah, a little depressing I have to say."

"I was doing my homework on World War II, but then I got bored and inspired."

"That's pretty cool. When I get bored with homework I text my friends."

"Really? How come I don't receive these texts?" he teased.

She lightly pushed him. "Shut up. Even before we were dating, we couldn't stay apart."

"I remember. You would always come ringing at my doorbell asking for me."

"At least I didn't spy on you from the old tree house."

"Yeah, good times."

"Oh, your mom said that dinner is almost ready and that your dad is on his way home."

"About time. I swear that man could live at that police station."

"Crime doesn't rest, you can't really blame him."

"True. So are you excited about going to your dad's tomorrow?"

"So and so. I haven't seen him in a month so it'll be nice to see him again. Then I'm going to miss my mom and it starts all over again."

"I'm pretty sure Sasha could relate."

"Yeah, but the difference is that they didn't get married and divorce. They hardly even bicker."

"Maybe they just see each other as friends."

"Maybe."

A small girl appeared at the doorway. "Dinner's ready."

"Thanks, Allie," said Aaron.

"Aaron, can I ask you a serious question?"

"Sure."

"If you ever had to choose between ice cream and sorbet, which one would, you choose?"

Allie, Aaron's little sister, always threw these kinds of questions at them. Abby didn't see why though. Unlike Allie's brothers she had become very inquisitive like her mother. She would ask many questions to get straight to the point.

"Ice cream," Aaron answered.

"Hmm," her smile almost turned smug. "Very interesting…"

"What's interesting?"

"Ice cream means that you are a lazy slouching cat and sorbet means that you are a healthy bouncing dog."

Both Aaron and Abby raised their brows at the statement. Allie was very strange for an eleven year old.

"So are you calling me fat?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm just taking a survey to see how many boys choose ice cream or sorbet."

"I suggest not doing that."

"Why?"

"You probably won't live to see the next day if you decide to give those quizzes at Gotham City Middle School," Abby explained.

"And I don't want my little sister to have a bad reputation in her first year of middle school," Aaron added.

"Ugh!" groaned Allie. "Middle school is so boring! I can't wait to go to high school!"

She stomped off into the hall leaving Abby to giggle slightly.

"She's gonna regret that statement, you know?" stated Abby.

"Yeah…but let her learn on her own. C'mon let's go get some dinner."

Abby followed Aaron out of his room.

When they reached the kitchen, they seated themselves among the rest of Aaron's family.

Jared smirked at her. "Fancy seeing you here again."

"Same to you. I would've thought your family voted you off of the island," Abby remarked.

"Ha-ha, very funny. I actually don't need a democracy to keep me in this house."

Allie snorted. "Yeah, obviously or else you would've been gone by now."

"Settle down, guys," said Carrie. "We don't need a rebellion in this house."

"Besides I'll be chilling out in California by this time next year," said Jared, almost smug.

"Oh so, Santa Barbara decided to take you in after all. Congrats," Abby acknowledged.

Carrie looked at the wall clock in the kitchen. "Well since your father is on his way, we'll just eat without him until he gets here."

None of the West children seemed to rebel against the statement. It was within seconds that Jared and Aaron began to fill their plates with food.

"Excuse me, boys," their mother coughed. "Why don't you let your sister and Abby have some as well?"

"Sorry Mom," Aaron gave a big guilty smile.

"It's fine. Just let the girls have some before you devour all of the food."

Taking that as her cue, Abby grabbed a big spoonful of mashed potatoes. Allie and Carrie did the same as well.

The side door creaked open. "Hello everyone!"

Liam West strode in through the door obviously happy to see his family.

Allie jumped from her seat. "Daddy!"

"Hey there, Al-Pal," Liam kissed the top of Allie's head.

"It's about time you got home," said Carrie.

"Sorry about that," Liam responded with sincerity. "Gordon had me investigate a crime downtown and it ran longer than it should have been." He sat himself next to Carrie, pecking her on the cheek. "But don't worry I'm here now. So how was everyone's day?"

"Well I was working on some art pieces, Allie got an A on her science project and Jared ditched first and second period today."

And that's all it took for Liam's smile to turn into a frown.

"Jared Andrew West," he seethed though his teeth. "What in the world were you thinking?"

"I was sent to pick Aaron up at the airport," Jared quickly defended. "Isn't that right?"

"Yeah," gulped Aaron, "but our plane arrived at six and school starts at seven thirty."

"I dropped you off at home on time."

"But the question is that what were you doing those two hours you missed school," Carrie inquired.

"Well…uh…"

"Look, Son. If you're in some kind of trouble, I promise you that we'll love you just the same," Liam reassured.

"I'm not in trouble. It's just that there was this girl today and she was from out of town and…we just hung out for a couple hours."

"So you decided to miss two hours of education that you may use for the rest of your life to spend some time with a girl?"

"I know it sounds stupid, but she's going to Santa Barbara too. I thought I'd start making friends now."

Carrie sighed. "That's great, Honey…but that's until next year."

"Exactly, I want to be prepared for the worst."

"The worst of what? Being alone for a sorority party?"

"No. For as long as I can remember I've lived here in Gotham. It's not perfect, but its home. I just want to make some sort of home while there in Santa Barbara."

Liam ran his fingers though his short hair. "Fine, I'll vouch for you on this one, but if you do this again…don't expect to have your car the next morning."

"I won't, I promise," said Jared.

Carrie cut in. "But I'm not calling the office to tell them it was an excused absence. You're going to have to accept the truancy, Jared."

"I will."

"Now that the drama is over for the night, Aaron and Abby are back to join us for dinner."

"Oh," Liam's faced turned a shade of red, "you were here this whole time, Abby? Boy, do I feel embarrassed."

"It's okay," said Abby. "My parents don't rest their rage either when I'm around my friends."

"I know, but still, you shouldn't have witnessed that scene."

"Again, it's okay. I've known you guys since I was three—I'm used to the whole Jared-getting-in-trouble-scene."

"Yeah, but as I've said to my own kids since they've been born: you need to be careful of what you see and don't see or else there's gonna be a number of people on your back and you have to question your own morality."

"Dad, it's okay. She doesn't need to the lecture," Aaron tried to defend.

"I'm not lecturing her, Son. I'm just letting her know what's out there. Whether or not you're a cop you need to know this in order to survive in any place you encounter. And that just doesn't mean what you see. It means what you hear, who you spend your time with or just simply knowing the person can get your butt kicked. It's a harsh cruel world out there and I don't want anyone at this table to be buying into the seduction of crime."

"No offense, Mr. West, but crime isn't very…seductive," Abby pointed out. "I mean it's not exactly a glamorous job (if that's what people call it these days)."

"That's true, Abby. It's not a glamorous job, but you'd be surprised how many people would contradict that statement for various reasons. Like the mob—most say money. Others like the occasional teenage punks do it simply for the fun of it. I've seen both kinds for as long as I've been at the police station—and that was _before_ I started working there. You just have to know what's out there is what I'm saying…because if you don't it'll eat you alive."

Everyone was silent after that statement. Liam had always given what Aaron called his "daily lectures" almost every day to the West family. In some ways, Abby understood this considering Liam was around people who let their lives go downhill every day. Even Rachel lectured her about this stuff sometimes. But it was obvious that Aaron's father was dedicated to helping Gotham to come to peace.

"I got an A on my science project, Daddy!" Allie exclaimed.

A smile stretched across Liam's face. "That's great, Sweetie. What did you do?"

"The psychology of girls versus boys which involved me to collect a few samples."

"So that's where my cologne went!" said Jared.

Abby smiled. Allie could be such an overachiever sometimes. But at least Allie was able to get her family's mind off of what Liam had just said.

After dinner had come and gone, Abby said her goodbyes to the West family and headed back to her own home with Aaron walking by her side. Whether or not it was possible, it became colder outside.

"Wow, Gotham has finally reached its goal of being the coldest city I've been in," Abby muttered.

Aaron put an arm around her. "I can help with that."

"Thanks. I feel a lot warmer now."

"No problem. So are you ready for school tomorrow?"

"Sort of, but it'll be nice to only have three days left this week."

"Definitely. Sophomore year's been tough even without taking any AP classes."

"Plus colleges look at both sophomore and junior years the most when they see your application."

"Don't remind me. I'm barely keeping a good enough grade in chemistry. Thankfully I'm not doing anything in science."

"I'm just glad boxing allowed us to miss two days of school."

They finally arrived to Abby's porch. Much to her relief, her mother had not returned home yet.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow then."

"Aren't we walking tomorrow?" asked Aaron.

"No, remember? I'm going over to my dad's house tomorrow so either Alfred or my dad is gonna pick me up in the morning."

"Oh, duh. I just lose track of time sometimes."

"It's okay. We can walk together after school since Allie's bus stop is only a few blocks from the penthouse."

"Sure that works itself out."

"Great, I'll see you tomorrow at school."

They both leaned in towards each other until their lips touched. Abby didn't know what it was, but every time she and Aaron shared a kiss she somehow felt at ease. He was always so gentle and careful with her as he was socially to her. A year may have gone by since they decided to stretch the boundaries of their friendship, but it felt as if it was only yesterday they started to date.

Suddenly a pair of bright lights came into view.

Her eyes became wide as she separated herself from Aaron. "Oh shoot, my mom's coming home!"

"Did she know that you were at my house for dinner?"

"I left her a note in case she came back before I did, but I told her I was too tired to go out to dinner with her and Dent."

"I guess I'd better get going then."

"No—she'll see you and know exactly what happened. Come to the back with me."

Aaron followed behind her as she rushed through the front door. Both of them ran across the house until they met with the back door.

"Abby," came her mother's voice. "Are you up?"

"Yeah," she called back. "I just got up from my nap!"

Abby quickly motioned for Aaron to go through the back door. He already knew what to do from there. This was not the first time she had sneaked around her mother. Aaron did a mute goodbye and took off into the darkness. Abby quickly took off her jacket and shoved her shoes to the side. With most of the evidence gone, she made her way to the living room where her mother would most likely be.

She gave a fake yawn as soon as she met eyes with Rachel. "Hey Mom, how was your date with Harvey?"

"Pretty good, but he's taking me somewhere nice later this week and he won't tell me where it is."

"That's great. I should get to bed now since I go back to school tomorrow."

"So you didn't do anything this evening other than staying home?"

"Yup, I just slept and ate."

"Really," she held a piece of paper in her hand. "Because this note says that you went over to Aaron's. Do you want to explain?"

Abby mentally slapped herself. She had completely forgotten about the note left in the kitchen.

"Aaron called me and invited me to hang out for a bit," admitted Abby. "And I ended up staying for dinner as well."

"That's fine, but I don't like the idea of you going behind my back."

"Again, sorry."

"Since you're going over to your father's tomorrow, I'll let you off the hook this once—but that's only because you left a note to let me know where you were in case I came home early."

Wow, that was a first. Since Abby had started her reign of trouble making, Rachel had always stopped to ground her. Not that it would affect her judgment of course, but it was something to teach Abby a lesson. Even now at age fifteen, Abby still had a little bit of a knack of getting in trouble. Believe it or not, this year wasn't as bad as the others. Probably because she promised her father that she wouldn't get into as big of trouble as she did the previous year. But now that Rachel let this act go by, Abby couldn't help, but feel slightly confused. Despite these feelings, Abby didn't feel that she should question her mother's judgment. Rachel was the assistant DA after all.

"OK, I'll be going to bed then," was all Abby could say.

Rachel gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you in the morning."

As Abby headed to bed all that went through her mind was Liam's speech about knowing what is out in the world. He was right about that part, but she was still set on crime not being seductive. Who would want to risk their lives for a few drugs or some cash anyway? Aaron's father was a good cop, but she couldn't see someone like Harvey Dent going down without a fight.


	3. Ordinary Day

When you walk, you don't leave tracks  
When you talk, they don't talk back  
Believe in every word you say, but they don't know  
They don't, don't know

Secrets that you just can't keep, promises that you made me  
You twisted it to suit yourself but now I know  
I know, I know

- Kiss & Tell by Selena Gomez

* * *

Ordinary Day

Abby wanted to murder her alarm clock that morning. It did not go off at the time that she usually got up and now she was rushing though getting ready. She took a look at the clock. Now she only had five minutes to be ready before Bruce or Alfred came by to pick her up after school. _Looks like I'm gonna have to skip breakfast._ Quickly slipping on her jacket, she grabbed her backpack, luggage and began to head downstairs.

"Are you ready, Abby?" her mother called as Abby made her way down the stairs.

"Almost," Abby answered in a rushed tone.

"Oh God, Sweetheart. You look like a mess."

"That's probably because my alarm clock didn't go off on time this morning."

"I'm sorry, but you could at least brush your hair."

"There's no time. I'll just put my hair up."

Dropping everything that she held in her hands, she grabbed the hair band from her wrist and tied her hair into a low ponytail. A knock then came at the door.

"That's for me," she quickly said. "I'll see you around."

"OK, have fun at your father's house," Rachel gave a weak smile.

Abby opened the door to find Alfred smiling at her.

"Hey Alfred," she smiled back at him.

"Good morning, Miss Wayne. May I help you with your bags?"

"Yes, thank you. You can just take my suitcase. I'll carry my backpack."

"Very well."

Abby handed him her suitcase and they began to head out to the car that waited on the side of the curb.

Most of the car ride was filled with conversation as Abby was filling Alfred in on what had happened that month of her absence. Not much had happened, but she didn't want to have any holes in their relationship during the month.

"Sorry Master Wayne couldn't come to take you to school himself. He had an early meeting this morning, but he said that he would see you tonight."

"It's cool," she said. "I understand that he's very busy man. Both night and day, if I may add."

"Yes, he's got quite an agenda."

"Agenda like he's planning something or agenda like he has a lot of things planned already?"

"Neither. When you're in the business world or the crime world there is nothing planned."

"Good answer. You know one of these days I'm gonna catch you when you can't answer a question without giving a good piece of advice or just saying something plain wise."

A devious smile crept on Alfred's lips. "Do you want to put a bet on that?"

"I don't gamble, but what the heck? Any question that comes up that requires more than a simple answer, you have to answer with something wise as you usually do or else you'll owe me five bucks each time that you don't."

"What do I get out of this?"

"Whatever you want. Just let me know when your side of the bet is won."

They soon pulled up to the front of the school.

Abby held out her hand. "So is that a deal?"

His hand wrapped around hers for a few moments. "You bet."

"Well, I'll see you after school at the penthouse."

"Very well, Miss Wayne. Have a good day at school."

With one nod, Abby left the car.

She found Sasha and Heather at the usual place they met before first period.

Heather was the first to catch her gaze. "Hey, Abby! Where's Aaron?"

"Probably catching a ride with his brother or walking on his own, why?"

"No reason, you guys usually walk together is all. I guess we'll see Aaron during history."

"So how was the trip?" Sasha asked.

"Pretty good. We won if that actually tells you anything."

"That's great."

"Wait," said Heather. "You were somewhere else these past two days? I thought you and Aaron were home sick with the flu."

Both Abby and Sasha gave her the usual stare until it finally came to Heather. For as long as Abby had known Heather, nothing had gone past her. It would eventually sink in, but it required patience for her red-headed friend.

"Oh, so Aaron and Abby were the ones that went to the boxing thing in Metropolis. Oops. I guess my cousins were the ones infected with the flu."

Abby gave her a confused look. "How'd you get those two mixed up?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I think it was because I was on the phone with Sasha on the night she was telling me and my mom was trying to talk to me at the same time…Which would explain a lot since most of my cousins are athletically impaired."

"So I guess that leaves you with no brains on your side of the family."

The rather rude comment didn't come from either Abby or Sasha. Abby knew exactly who would say that and it was the same person who owned the voice. All of their heads snapped to the blonde standing not too far from them: Renee Kendal.

"Well at least she's got something called common curtsey," Abby replied coolly. "Ever heard of it?"

Renee only looked at her perfectly trimmed nails. "I have, but I only think of it as a suggestion since I don't need any of that to get anywhere."

"Hm. That explains a lot."

"It was quiet without you here, Wayne. What? Did Metropolis get sick of you too?"

"No, but I'm pretty sure it would get sick of you too as soon as you put one foot over their border."

"Ouch, that hurt. Nothing seems to have changed since you've left except that your boyfriend isn't around to protect you. Did he break up with you or something? If so, it's about time he did."

"No. How about Riley then? Did he find out that you're a stuck up snob?"

"Wow, covering up a question with more questions. I thought you were better than this, Wayne."

Before Abby could respond, Sasha came in between them.

"All right before we're here all morning, I think we should get to class."

"Oh yeah because it's the place to be these days," Renee mocked. "Don't you have a library to go to or something?"

"Hey, at least Sasha has a lot more brains than you," Heather joined Sasha at her side.

"And that's coming from someone who confuses an apple with a banana."

"That was in first grade!"

"Whatever, like it makes a difference. Tell me: how many red-heads does it take to power a light bulb?"

"Don't answer that," Abby snapped at Heather before she could answer. She faced Renee once again. "Now, don't bring them into this. This is between you and me."

"Really? I thought since they were _your_ friends that they were already involved with this. They were the ones who stepped in."

Much to Abby's displeasure the bell had rung.

"Look, just keep them out of this and keep this feud between us," was the last thing Abby said to Renee before storming off.

Other than that scene, Renee had been quiet the whole day. She didn't even make a wise crack to Abby when the teacher called Abby out for daydreaming during class. It was beginning to scare Abby. For some reason, there was a feeling in her gut telling her to watch out. She didn't know why, but it was there. Abby hated it whenever her friends got involved with the matter. She understood that they wanted to be there for her and protect her, but lately Renee had been taking out her rage out on them and not her. Now many years into the countless fighting, Abby had to admit it was foolish and wanted to put a stop to it. Unfortunately it wouldn't stop now that her friends were involved.

Renee's hidden agenda had worried Abby up to this moment as she walked with Aaron to lunch. No matter how much you knew the girl, you could never guess what Renee Kendal was up to.

"Hey, are you okay?" Aaron asked suddenly.

"Yeah…I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You're making that face again."

"What face?" she inquired.

"The face you always make when you're worried about something. So what's up?"

"Renee: that's what's up."

"I don't see anything different than the usual, but why are you so worried about it?"

"In today's argument, Renee decided to bring Sasha and Heather into it even though they had no right to be there. I mean I appreciate them standing up for me, but I don't want them to get hurt because of me."

"Do you really think that Renee is gonna actually hurt them?"

"Well—not physically at least…I hope."

"If I know Renee, she won't do anything beyond putting your deep dark secrets on the _Gotham Times_."

Abby sighed. "I guess you're right."

They met Sasha and Heather under the oak tree not too far from the middle of the quad. As usual, Sasha was studying for test that was probably in the next period or so and Heather was on her cell phone obviously texting someone.

"Hey guys," Abby greeted as she sat on the grass.

Both of them looked up from what they were doing and replied at the same time, "Hey Root Beer couple."

Aaron sat down on the grass next to Abby. "Root Beer couple? Where did that come from?"

Heather was the first to speak with enthusiasm in her eyes. "You see while Sasha and I were in English, the class was talking about the many soda companies that came in around the twentieth century and Jeremy brought up _A&W_. So I'm like, 'Wait isn't that both Abby and Aaron's initials?' So in the end Sasha and I decided to declare you as the Root Beer couple."

Abby was entertained by the idea that both Aaron and her name connected with a root beer company, but she did not like the new name that her friends had come up with.

"But that's beside the point," said Sasha. "The guy who called out _A&W_, Jeremy, he sent me a note during class."

From the smile that Sasha had put on her face, Abby could tell that she was clearly interested in the boy.

Abby couldn't resist asking, "What did it say?"

"It said to meet him in the quad during lunch today and let me tell you that boy is fine!"

"Yeah, he seems like a nice enough guy," Aaron commented.

All of the girls in the group looked at him with un-amused expressions.

"Let me guess, this is gonna turn into one of those _girl_ talks, isn't it?"

"Not today," Sasha answered, "but word of advice Aaron: when a girl starts to like a guy and tells her friends, the conversation starts with looks. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to meet somebody."

Abby's eyes followed Sasha until she stopped in the middle of the quad where she seemed to stop to meet a tan skinned boy. From there, they walked off to the cafeteria.

"Isn't he cute?" Heather squealed.

"He's good looking, but he's not the type of guy I'd go after," said Abby.

"Psh! Whatever. You already have a boyfriend unlike Sasha and me."

Aaron's annoyed voice came in. "Hello? I can hear every word you say."

"Sorry," Abby smiled guiltily. "Our girl talks are kinda addicting if you haven't noticed."

"I've noticed, I've just become annoyed with them yet I learned to tolerate with them. I _really_ need more guy friends."

"Then why don't you go hang out with Adam and his friends?"

"I don't know. They are _juniors_ if you remember."

"So, what's the difference?"

"We're sophomores dealing with deciding what we want to do in life and they're juniors worrying about SATs and which college to apply to the next year. It's different worlds."

"OK, do you know any sophomores that you can hang out with then?"

"Not really. I mean…I talk to guys in my classes and stuff, but it's not exactly what you call on best friend status thing."

"So, I guess you're stuck with us still."

He sighed. "Yep, looks that way."

Aaron had always had this issue. Even when they were in kindergarten, Aaron would always prefer to hang out with Abby or any of her other friends. It wasn't that he hated boys. It was just that he seemed to feel a little more comfortable around girls than he did around guys. Abby thought it was most likely because he got enough guy time with his brother, but lately he's been complaining about a little more than often. She wanted to help him, but she didn't know how. The bell soon rang and they went separate ways towards their classes.

Abby absolutely hated Geometry class. Reason number one: she was never good at math in the first place. Reason number two: none of her immediate group of friends was in the class, so she was forced to pay attention. Reason number three: most of the people in her class thought they were too smart for the class, so they make mess of things for the people around them. God, how she hated those people. Reason number four: the teacher usually spoke in a monotone voice which sometimes put Abby to sleep. As for the final reason she hated the class: she would always spend her time dreading the next class. P.E. No class was worse than having to run a mile in seven minutes flat. Her fears came to life when the bell rung for the next class.

Thankfully, Abby didn't have to spend P.E. alone. All her friends were in it and so was Aaron. The only downside seemed to be that Renee and her crones were in the same class as well. To add to that, she was still slightly worried that Renee was going to try something to either her or Heather and Sasha.

Once Abby, Sasha, and Heather were done putting on their uniforms for class, they headed over to football field where the teacher took attendance.

"For some reason, I can't wait for this day to be over," Abby had meant for the comment to be sarcastic, but it came out as a statement instead.

"And why is that?" asked Sasha.

"Well you could say Renee really bummed out my day. I'm getting really tired of talking to that girl."

"I know. I think she _enjoys_ seeing how you react to things."

"No duh."

"Not only that, but I think she's trying to involve us too," Heather commented.

"That's what I've been worrying about all day! She knows I don't agree in bringing you guys into this and now doing this to tick me off."

"C'mon, this is a bickering fight that's been going on since like ever. There's no way Renee will hurt us just to get on your bad side."

"Too late for that and you would be surprised how far she will go. She was the one who told Gotham and the world that I was Bruce Wayne's daughter."

They mutely agreed as they scattered to their appropriate spots in the roll call line. Once the P.E. teacher, Mr. Yule, was finished with attendance, he led them onto the track.

"Today, we're going to do a little bit of track running," he announced. "You will be separated into two teams. Albright and Kendal, you girls are the captains and now take the next few minutes to choose your teams."

Neither Heather nor Renee wasted a moment in getting up to the front of the class.

Renee was the first to speak. "Amber."

"Sasha."

"Riley."

"Aaron."

"Hanna."

"Abby."

One by one, everyone lined up behind either Heather or Renee. When all of the teams were split up evenly, Mr. Yule put each of them in a series of obstacles and runs. Heather, of course, excelled in all of them since having experience from being on the track team for two years straight. Abby on the other hand wasn't quite as…talented. She was always last in finishing and kept on tripping every time she had to jump a hurdle. It was a miracle she hadn't injured herself that day. She went into the comfort of Aaron's arms when her turn was finally up.

"So?" he whispered to her.

"So, what?"

"The day's almost over and Renee hasn't tried anything at all today."

She smiled at the thought. "You're right. I guess she was just trying to scare me."

They returned their attention over to Sasha (who was now preparing to jump the hurdle).

"Go Sasha!" Abby cheered.

Within moments, Sasha began sprinting to the hurdle. When it came time to jump, she did it just fine, but the landing was different. Instead of landing on her two feet and continuing to run for a short distance, Sasha's foot made contact with a tennis ball causing her to fall to the ground, cradling her knee. Aaron and Abby ran to Sasha's side.

Abby kneeled down to her level. "Are you okay, Sasha?"

"No," she barely choked out. "My…knee hurts."

Abby looked to Aaron. "Go get Mr. Yule, right now. I think Sasha's hurt."

Aaron didn't argue with the request. He ran over to the football field where Mr. Yule was with the other team. It wasn't long until Heather joined them.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Sasha was just jumping her hurdle and all of the sudden this tennis ball appears and now she says her knee hurts."

"It must've buckled or something. I wouldn't be surprised if there were any ankle injuries as well."

Sasha gave a loud gasp. "I'm gonna…kill whoever put that stupid ball there!"

"Where did the tennis ball come from anyway?" Heather's head turned from Sasha to Abby.

"I don't know," said Abby. "I was last to get off the hurdle. I didn't even have a tennis ball on me."

A thought occurred to Abby, but before she could elaborate on it, Mr. Yule kneeled down by Sasha.

"What happened here?" he demanded.

"Sasha jumped over the hurdle, but when she did she landed on a tennis ball. Now she says that her knee hurts," Heather summarized.

"All right, Peterson, I'm going to feel around your ankle in case there's anything broken."

Sasha nodded in response. Mr. Yule's fingers firmly squeezed around her ankle. She didn't scream, but she did wince a little bit in pain.

"Okay, it's not broken, but it's definitely swollen. As for your knee, you need to go to the doctor for that. Albright, why don't you go take her to the nurse for me?"

Heather didn't argue. With Abby's help, Heather helped Sasha hobble back to her feet. Abby watched as Heather guided Sasha away from the football field. She clenched her fist. She knew who put that tennis ball there. Now she was going to give her a piece of her mind.

"OK, guys go and get changed and I'll see you tomorrow," Mr. Yule called.

Once the class was out of earshot's distance from the teacher, Abby marched right up to Renee.

"You stupid self-centered two-faced toad bitch!" she nearly screamed.

Renee turned from her boyfriend, Riley to Abby. "Excuse me, Wayne?"

"You're the one who set that tennis ball in front of that hurdle!"

"Me? Why would I hurt the bookworm herself?"

"This morning you were bringing them into the argument. I wouldn't be surprised if you brought them into this bickering fight."

"Even if I did, what would I have to gain by this?"

"If you were trying to tick me off, then you have succeeded. I do not want them involved with this."

"It's a little too late for that, Princess. They know you and you'll do anything to protect them."

"So it was you that did it."

"I didn't exactly do this on my own. I had help from Riley, of course."

"Well isn't that just dandy? You are the most sickest person I have ever met."

"Oh yeah, you're the most annoying person I've ever met. Now just walk along before I do something that I truly regret."

"Trust me, I'm close to doing the same thing," snarled Abby.

A pair of hands gripped her shoulders. "C'mon Abs, she's not worth it. The best we can do right now is check on Sasha."

Abby immediately recognized the voice as Aaron. He was always her voice of reason. He was right though. As much as Abby wanted to take her rage out on Renee, there were better things to do than to teach a lesson to someone who didn't want to learn. Abby glared at Renee before allowing Aaron to lead her away.

Abby's frustrated attitude hadn't changed as her and Aaron walked home together though the city. Although she had tried to get her mind off of the incident, her mind couldn't help but wonder back to such place. The one thing that really bothered her out of all of it was that Renee didn't seem to care. All she ever seemed to care about was to make Abby feel small.

"The worst part is that Mr. Yule doesn't know a thing about it," Abby continued to rant to Aaron.

"It's best if we keep it quiet. You know what happens when a teacher gets involved in this kind of stuff. They end up accusing the wrong person and the actual culprit gets away with it."

"That's not usually the case, but it is when Renee is around."

"Yeah definitely. At least Sasha's going to be okay."

"If okay means that she'll have to be on crutches for two weeks then I guess its fine."

"At least she's alive. That's the bright side of this."

Abby moaned. "True, but how long until Renee decides to do something that's way beyond her level? She already crossed the line today."

"And what line was that?"

"I don't know, but I'm tired of talking about this and I'm tired of dealing with Renee."

"Alright, so let's talk about…cheese. You know, it seems to go with everything these days."

"Except deserts. Ugh, I just remembered. I haven't had anything to eat except for a nutrition bar and an apple."

Her stomach growled at the thought of it.

"Did you get anything for lunch?"

"No. I forgot to get lunch money this morning because I was rushing which made me skip breakfast."

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Where'd you get the apple and the nutrition bar then?"

"It…was just sitting out on your desk and I took it when you weren't looking."

"I thought I remembered packing an apple and a nutrition bar for lunch this morning."

"Sorry. I was starving and wasn't thinking at all. I'll buy us lunch tomorrow if that makes anything better."

Aaron put an arm around her shoulder. "I accept your apology and offer considering you've had a pretty rough day…and so has everyone else."

"Thanks. I just hope tomorrow is much better."

"You and me both."

Aaron's phone suddenly vibrated between them. Taking his arm off of her, he dug his hand in his pocket and took out his phone.

"Hello? Allie is that you?" Aaron gave an irritated sigh. "You're still are school!—Why don't you call Jared then?—Fine, I'll be there as soon as I can. See you then."

He groaned. "Sorry, Abs. I gotta go back to get Allie. Her bus hasn't shown up for the past hour so now the office is holding her hostage and she won't call Jared because he's working."

"It's okay; you have to rescue your sister. Plus Gotham City Middle School really isn't that far from where we're standing."

"I know, but I hate to leave you alone like this."

"It's fine, really. The penthouse is only a few blocks away and I've dealt with worse on my own: the paparazzi."

Abby wanted to say Ra's al Ghul and Crane, but that part had to be kept quiet from Aaron. Besides the paparazzi was pretty bad too. Thankfully as the year had progressed, Abby became old news.

"They can get pretty annoying," said Aaron. "All right then, I guess I'll be heading out."

"Great," she gave him a short kiss. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"I'll see you then."

With one last wave, Abby continued on her path as Aaron turned the opposite way. It didn't scare her to walk in the city alone. With Batman cleaning up Gotham, criminal activity had slowly been declining in the past year. Even if anybody wanted to try something with Abby, she would use the self-defense mechanisms that Bruce had shown her shortly after the incident with Ra's al Ghul. That was beside the point though. It was broad daylight and there were many people walking in the streets of Gotham. If you knew criminals well enough, you'd know that they want to keep what they're doing under wraps.

A sudden breeze and a flash of yellow and black abruptly sped past her. For moment, Abby thought it was Allie's bus running late, but what bus is late for over an hour? That led to another question: what was a school bus doing speeding in Gotham's streets long after school was over? She could vaguely remember seeing the driver having this crazed look on his face and…appeared as though he were a clown. _This is what I get for skipping two meals._ It was only a hallucination, she reminded herself. But before she could continue, she found a lone card on the curb of the sidewalk. Walking over to the card, she picked it up. Much to her surprise it was just a simple Joker's playing card.

"This is a very strange city," she muttered to herself.

Putting the card in her pocket, she pressed on to the penthouse. The Joker card and the hallucination of a clown bus driver were just a simple mere coincidence.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Sorry, if this took awhile to get out. Summer's been kind of busy and I've been kind of lazy. I don't know when I'll post the next chapter, but I have more than half of the story planned out so hopefully it shouldn't take that long. Until next time!

~Emyrox567


	4. Hysterical Blindness

Hysterical Blindness

Only moments after encountering the strange situation, Abby entered the hotel lobby, waving at the doorman on the way in. She made her way over to the elevator and pressed the button. She, Bruce and Alfred had been living at the penthouse for a year now, still waiting on the reconstruction of Wayne Manor to finish. Although she had missed the manor dearly, she had enjoyed her time at the penthouse. It was one of her highlights when staying with her father for the month.

When the elevator finally came, she stepped inside and put in the pin number. It wasn't long until the elevator doors reopened to reveal a large room.

"I'm home!" Abby called to the empty room as she exited the elevator. "Alfred, are you here?"

"Yes, I'm in kitchen!"

She followed his short directions and walked over the kitchen where he was wiping the counters.

He smiled at her. "Hello Miss Wayne. How was school today?"

"I'd rather not talk about it, but I'll summarize it for you. Renee decided to cross the line which involved Sasha being crutches for a while and I barely had anything to eat."

"I'm sorry about your day, but maybe actually having something to eat will cheer you up."

"That would actually be a good idea."

Abby dropped her backpack on the floor and headed over to the refrigerator.

"So anything else exciting happen today?" Alfred continued to ask.

She thought for a moment before answering. "No. Sasha's injury was today's highlight. Anyway, is dad home yet?"

"Master Wayne is still at Wayne Enterprises and won't be home until tonight. Are you sure there's nothing else you'd like to share?"

"I'm sure. Nothing else weird happened. But hypothetically speaking, could you have hallucinations from lack of food?"

"Certainly, if you've been out in a desert for days without food, but if it's just been a day you should be all right."

"OK then…I'm just gonna head up to my room to do some homework."

"Are you sure you're all right, Miss Wayne?"

"I'm sure. Whatever I saw today—or a few minutes ago for that matter, I'm pretty sure it'll wash away."

"If you say so, but if you ever feel the need to talk to anyone, Master Wayne and I are ready to listen."

"Thanks, Alfred. See you around."

Abby grabbed some cold pizza, took her backpack and headed up to her room. It wasn't that difficult to forget the clown hallucination with a pile of homework on Abby's hands. She didn't even want to remember the incident actually. But then again, the Joker card still resided in her pocket. She still debated whether or not to tell Bruce. It wasn't exactly life or death and it might have actually have been a figment of her imagination. If it really was serious, Bruce would have known about it by now and put on the Batman suit. Abby was almost done with her homework when a knock came from her door.

She smiled at the figure. "Hey, Dad."

"Hey there, Abs," he grinned back at her. "How was your day today? From what I hear from Alfred, it wasn't that very good."

"You have no idea. Renee decided to sink lower and hurt Sasha in the process. Simple as that."

"Did you do anything to provoke her?"

"Not that I know of. I was arguing with her this morning and Sasha and Heather decided to step in and help, but that made it worse. She just wants me to feel like trash in my opinion."

Bruce took a seat at the edge of her bed. "You're probably not helping the situation either, Abs."

"And how am I not helping this?" she turned her body to Bruce.

"Well instead of standing your ground, you seem to be doing the same thing she is: throwing insults and little stunts that mimic hers."

"I'm trying to tell her to knock it off. I'm not gonna waste my breath on someone who isn't going to listen. Now I have to think of a way to get her back…"

"This is exactly what I was talking about. This is going to end up being a never ending fight if none of you put a stop to it."

"I have tried to put a stop to it. Obviously, it's not working."

"Really? Because I got a call today from Renee's father saying that you said a few things that should have not been said."

Abby's face flushed in embarrassment. "I was angry, okay? I felt that she needed to know what I thought of her actions."

"I know you're trying to show her that you're not afraid, but doing just what you're doing now to handle the situation shows that you're no better than her."

"I'm trying to ignore her, but it feels like every time that I do she causes more trouble for me."

"Just be firm yet gentle about the situation."

"I'll try. So…how was your day today—or month for that matter?"

"Same old, same old. Company's doing well and the mob is steadily declining. The only thing interesting that is going on tomorrow is that the CEO from Lau Security Investments is coming tomorrow to talk about a joint investment."

Abby was about to ask why in the world would that be the least bit interesting, but she put herself in the perspective of Batman.

A smile slowly formed on her face. "He's involved with the mob, isn't he?"

"He has to be getting his money from somewhere."

Even though Abby was restricted from ever seeing Batman again, Bruce still kept her updated on his activity. They barely kept anything from each other actually. Abby would tell Bruce her drama at school and Bruce would tell her about his nights as Batman. That's why she felt guilty when she didn't even say a word about the Joker card.

"So what are you going to do at this meeting?" she asked.

"Absolutely nothing. I need to know what he has already and see if I can use that against him in the future."

"Very smart. If only it were like that with Renee."

Bruce was obviously about to say something about the matter, but waved it off. "What time is it?"

"About six. Why?"

"GCN is on."

With that, Abby grabbed her remote and pressed the on button. A flat screen then emerged from the wall above her computer. It flashed on revealing Mike Engel talking to Harvey Dent. She rolled her eyes. Why would she have to meet him in person if she already saw him every day on TV? Despite her displeasure for Dent, she continued to watch the interview. Besides it become sort of a tradition between Bruce and her so that they would both be aware of what's going on in Gotham. Abby found it to be a bit boring at times, but she had to admit that Batman had made a huge difference in the news. Before Batman, all the news Abby seemed to hear was ramblings of how the city was falling to injustice and now the news seemed to be getting better and better.

She barely even paid attention to the interview as it dragged on. They just seemed to complain on why Batman decided to help the city. _Maybe he just decided to be nice? How about that Dent?_

Bruce's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "Ever met him? Dent, I mean."

"Not for more than five seconds. I try to avoid him."

"Your mother hasn't even tried to officially introduce you two?"

"She did last night, but I wiggled my way out of it. Why do you ask?"

"Just trying to see if he can be trusted."

"For being the new DA or being involved in Mom's life?"

Bruce didn't answer her right away. Abby knew that he didn't approve of the relationship as much as she did. He still loved her….even though he failed to admit it. And Rachel still loved him, but the only thing standing in the way of that relationship was a mask and Dent if Rachel didn't break up with him already.

"C'mon Dad, I know—"

Bruce help up his hand and pointed to the TV. Apparently there was breaking news to be reported. Abby put all of her attention to GCN now.

"….My colleague, Lydia Filangeri, is reporting outside Gotham National Bank," said Mike Engel, "where we're hearing six men robbed apparently sixty-eight million dollars out of the bank's vault. Lydia, what's the situation down there? It doesn't look like you're close to the bank."

The screen split into thirds showing Dent, Mike, and Lydia in their own rectangle.

Lydia responded, "That's right, Mike. We're only a couple blocks away from Gotham National. Authorities still have the perimeter set up around the area because apparently the bank robbers used grenades to intimidate the hostages into submission. Now there's fear more explosives may be inside."

"What is the status on the six bank robbers at this point?" asked Mike.

"Five out of six of them are dead inside the bank. Four took gunshots to the body and one was hit by a school bus that the last robber then used to get away with the money."

Wait. School bus? Somehow Allie's missing school bus and the bus that sped by her seemed to be tied to this incident. The only thing missing was the clown.

"Any identification of the perps?" Dent muttered in a low voice.

"Lydia, have any of the assailants have been identified at this point? Do we know—?"

Lydia shook her head. "No, there's been no reports on what the bank's surveillance videos reveals. But according to eye witnesses each man wore a clown mask. So there's been no identification thus far. We're still waiting to hear more."

"OK, Lydia. We certainly thank you, please keep us updated."

Abby shut off the TV at that point. So the clown wasn't a hallucination. Well, it didn't surprise her since a Scarecrow tried to poison Gotham City last year.

She looked over to Bruce. "So are you gonna head on over there?"

"After I visit Crane and the Chenchen, yes. They're going to have a trade off tonight and it could be one of my chances to take down the mob."

"They're already beyond defeated, but whatever. When I was walking home today, I saw a school bus speed past me with a clown driving it and before that happened Aaron got a call from his sister saying that her bus was an hour late. Then I find this card on the sidewalk."

Abby pulled out the Joker card and handed it to Bruce. "Do you think we should be worried?"

"No," he looked at the card. "Not now anyway. All this guy seems to be doing is robbing banks."

"Who is he anyway?"

"He calls himself the Joker. He's nothing to be worried about right now though. The mob is bigger than man in a clown suit."

"I never did like clowns."

He gave a warm smile. "I remember. You were terrified of them as a child."

"I still am…a little bit."

Bruce gave her back the card. "It's nothing you should be worried about anyway. I have to go now. I'll see you in the morning."

"See you in the morning, but that's if you're actually here at the penthouse tomorrow morning."

"I'll try. If I'm not here, you'll know where I'll be."

If he wasn't at the penthouse, he was definitely at the bunker. Not only was Wayne Manor being rebuilt, but so was the bat cave. So until then, Bruce was using the bunker located in an unused cargo area that Wayne Enterprises owned to hide all of his Batman stuff.

Bruce turned to leave, but stopped. "Before I forget, I need to ask you a favor. Well, technically I'm not the one asking the favor, but I'm passing on the message."

"What exactly is this favor?"

"Lucius' grandson is coming to live with him for the time being and he's starting off school tomorrow. So he was hoping that you could help him around school and help him make a few friends."

"Sure, what's his name?"

"Todd, I think it was. Anyway, you'll be carpooling with him tomorrow, so it would be a good opportunity to get to know each other."

"Fair enough. I'll see you tomorrow."

Abby turned to wait for his response, but he had already disappeared. It wasn't even eight and Bruce was already in his Batman mode. She hated it when he did that. Lucius Fox was a long time friend of Bruce's and a friend of Abby's as well. He had worked for her family's company even before she was born. Lucius was the genius behind Batman's gadgets, in fact. He was one of the few who knew about Bruce's nights. Abby was willing to open her arms to his grandson, Todd mostly because Lucius had shown her that same kindness. Plus kindness like that runs in the family, right? It couldn't hurt to make a new friend or two.

Abby had a lot more luck with getting up the next morning. This time she was able to get ready and have a full breakfast. Now she was riding in the back of Alfred's car as they drove through an unknown neighborhood that she presumed to be Lucius'. They soon stopped in front of a small home.

"Is this the place?" she asked Alfred.

"Yes, Miss Wayne. Could you please allow him to come inside the car for me?"

"Sure thing."

She slipped out of the car and jogged to the front door. She rang the doorbell and waited for a response. Abby soon heard commotion behind the door. The door swung open revealing a boy that looked to be no older than her.

"Hi," she held out her hand. "You must be Todd. I'm Abby."

Todd only stared at her hand. "Actually, it's T.J. and I don't do handshakes."

"OK then…let's get going."

"What's the rush? Is there a gunfight going on out there or something?"

"No, we just have to get to school."

"Oh right, that. I don't see the point in going, but I'll do it just for you, Baby."

Abby stared at him wide-eyed as he passed by her with a wink. "Excuse me?"

"I called you Baby. Do you have a problem with that?"

"Yes. For future reference, I prefer to be called Abby. If you fail to do so, you will have dire consequences."

He only rolled his eyes. "OK, we'll go with Abby then. Geez."

Abby didn't know about this, but she had a feeling that today was going to be a long day. She followed To—T.J. into the back seat of the car. Alfred then continued to drive the car.

"Hello, Mr. Fox," Alfred greeted. "I'm Alfred Pennyworth, but you may call me Alfred. I'll be driving you and Miss Wayne to school in the mornings."

"Cool, just like the sauce," he responded smoothly. "I prefer to be called T.J. by the way. I don't really go for casualties."

"Very well, T.J."

Abby looked at him curiously. "Where did the J com from though?"

"My middle name, James. Todd was just too weird a name for me, so I decided to go with T.J. though people like my gramps still like to refer to me as Todd."

"So where did you come from before?"

"I came from Michigan. Apparently my parents got fed up with me. They sent me here on the sole purpose to shape me up into 'a mature adult'. My dad thought since he grew up here and his experiences have taught him to appreciate what we have now, it would teach me a few things just by living here for a year or so. Crazy right? He thinks just by sending me here to Gotham, a criminal invested zone that I'll come out a better person."

"I don't know if it's crazy actually. It'll definitely toughen you out for sure, but what did you do that made your parents send you here?"

"Sorry, that's another story for another time, Honey."

Abby had the sudden urge to punch him the face. But with Alfred watching, it was proved impossible. She didn't understand it. How was this boy related to Lucius Fox, one of the most influential people in her life? Sure he had some of the physical qualities that made T.J. look related to Lucius with his dark completion and chocolate brown eyes (with the exception of having dark hair as being the only difference), but his attitude seemed to be quite different. From what she could tell, T.J. was very arrogant and didn't seem to pay attention to anyone else, but himself.

"We're here," Alfred's voice called from the front seat.

Abby didn't take a second glance at the school when she grabbed her backpack. "Great, thanks Alfred. See you after school."

She sprinted out of the car as fast as she could. Abby really wasn't in the mood to deal with T.J. any further. She continued her quickened pace through the halls as she looked for her friends. Abby found them soon enough talking amongst each other near Aaron's locker.

She waved at them. "Hey guys."

Aaron smiled at her as he gave her a peck on her cheek. "Hey, Abs. How was your night?"

"Pretty much the same. How about yours?"

"Nothing special. After I walked Allie home, I just ended up working on that report for history."

Sasha moaned. "Lucky. My parents wouldn't stop babying me last night. I mean I only got a sprained ankle and bruised my knee for crying out loud!"

"Maybe it's a part of your mom's mood swings again," Heather said.

"Maybe. But I'm tired of dealing with my mom's maternal problems and now I have to deal with them on one foot."

"Sorry about that, Sash. You should seriously consider just taking a night off from all of that stuff and hang out with us."

"I should. I mean my mom and my future brother or sister can live without me for one night."

It was then that an undesirable voice came from the hallway. "Abby! Over here!"

"Shoot," Abby quietly cursed.

They looked over to find T.J. scrambling through the crowd to get to them.

"Abs, do you know this guy?" asked Aaron.

"Unfortunately, yes."

T.J. approached them, breathing heavily. "Abby…where have you been? I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes."

"Sorry. I was…wasn't listening very well."

"Well, you need to get those ears checked, Princess. You're not getting any younger."

Abby nearly fumed at the new nickname that he gave her.

Aaron stepped in before Abby could do anything for the matter. "Dude, if you want to live, I suggest never calling her that."

"Why not? Does she have a problem with being called a Princess or something? Because last I checked girls loved to be called that."

"It's different in Abby's case and who are you anyway?"

Abby answered before he could. "This is T.J. It's his first day and his grandpa asked me to show him around. T.J., this is my boyfriend, Aaron and my friends, Sasha and Heather."

"Nice to meet you all. So where's history class?"

"It's just around the corner," Heather said. "We have the same class first period too, if you want us to take you there."

"Sure thing, Red."

The bell soon rang and they began to head to history. Aaron threw her a confused look when he caught her bothered expression.

"I'll explain it later," she mouthed to him.

But she had a feeling that she would never have to. As the day went on, everyone else seemed to be annoyed with him just as she was. Well except for Heather, but she was always open to anybody, so she didn't exactly count. All T.J. ever seemed to do in class was cause trouble for Abby and her friends. He would always try to bend over and whisper comments to them as the teacher was talking or if he was on the other side of the room, he would pass a note around. She couldn't understand why he was this annoying, but she was really getting sick of it. It was no wonder Lucius had to ask her of all people to show him around.

Lunch had finally come around and Abby was more than ready to leave school. She was even on the verge of calling Bruce to take her home. But she didn't on that fact that she did, it would just prove how much of a coward she really was. The only good thing about that day was that Renee skipped school to go on a shopping spree. It was a rumor going around school, but knowing her, Abby knew it was true nonetheless.

Finally escaping the clutches of T.J., Abby and Aaron walked towards the usual place they met for lunch.

"He's gonna come back you know," she stated to Aaron.

"I know. We seem to be the only people who can tolerate him as if right now."

"You have no idea how hard that is for me right now. I respect Lucius and all, but this kid is just a mess."

"But what exactly can we do about it? It's not like he'll make friends if we ditch him and who exactly, besides his grandpa, is gonna set him straight here?"

An idea then struck her. "Maybe a fellow guy here who happens to know how to play the guitar."

"Feel bad for the sour sap you're gonna set up with," he muttered.

She gave a fake sigh. "That's too bad. I was hoping you would take this a better a way. Oh well…"

"Wait! You're making me hang out with him!"

"I'm not forcing you to do it, but I thought since you're a guy and he's a guy he'll be more willing to listen to you than me. Besides I thought this could help you in finding more guy friends."

"Not with him. I hated the guy's guts during the first five minutes of meeting him; I don't think I want to spend my time with him."

"Please. You don't have to do major bonding time with him, but at least tell him straight up that he's an idiot."

Abby looked up at him with pleading eyes. She really didn't want T.J. to be this way if he was going to be stuck with them and Aaron hanging out with him would probably improve him…hopefully.

"Fine," he reluctantly agreed. "But you owe me one."

She hugged him tightly. "I owe you like twenty, but thank-you!"

"Let's just go meet everyone else."

Aaron had begun his "bonding" time with T.J. during lunch (much to Aaron's displeasure). They had left Abby, Heather and Sasha to go to some club meeting that Abby kept forgetting the name of. It had something to do with robots. That much Abby knew. Since then that was the last Abby saw of Aaron for the rest of lunch.

Once Geometry came, she made the discovery of T.J. being in the same class as her. While they were doing some work, Abby had asked him how the club meeting went. He only replied in saying, "Club was interesting, but Aaron sucks at designing robots. He's still a cool guy though." She took that as a good sign that Aaron was getting to him. Abby never even doubted him from the beginning anyway. Especially dealing with Jared every day of his life, this would be a piece of cake.

The sour memories of the day before came back when P.E. had come again. They hadn't anything much different from the activities before, except this time Sasha sat out and T.J. came to class as well sitting with Sasha. Abby was extremely tired by the time class had ended. Mostly because of the fact that they had to run the mile two times because the class was extra talkative today. Despite the extra work, Abby was happy to be done with today. It was a bunch of work, but she made it through.

She sat outside the school waiting for T.J. to come out some time later. It had been fifteen minutes since school had officially ended and he still hadn't shown up. Abby was beginning to grow worried. She got up to go find him.

It was then Jared began to walk up to her. "Hey, Abby. Have you seen Aaron anywhere? I was supposed to give him a ride and he didn't show up, so I thought that he was with you."

"No. He told me that he was going to catch a ride with you."

"That's still doesn't explain where he is though."

"He might be back at his locker. I'll come with you. I'm waiting for someone too and I think that he might be with Aaron."

Jared gave a short nod as he followed her inside of the school. Unfortunately, it turned out that Abby had been wrong. Neither Aaron nor T.J. was there. She began to become wary again. She didn't get the chance to get T.J.'s number and now she had no way in tracking him down. It was only T.J.'s first day in Gotham and there was already a huge possibility that danger may be lurking around the corner for him.

Jared pulled out his phone. "Hold on, let me call him. Maybe your friend is with him."

He dialed the number and pressed the phone to his ear. It wasn't even a minute when Abby began to hear Green Day music coming from Aaron's locker. Before could figure out whose ringtone it was, it was cut off.

"Hello," a moaning voice came from the locker.

Abby jumped from the locker in shock. "Aaron? Is that you?"

"Woah, Dude. Tell me how you ended up in there," Jared laughed with amusement.

"It's a long story, but it starts with T.J," Aaron said, obviously bothered by the whole situation.

Another voice came from the locker next to him. "Hey! Don't go blaming this on me!"

"You're right. If I had just let you get beat up, then my life would've been so much simpler."

Abby was appalled by this. "T.J., you're in there too?"

"Yeah…funny story."

Aaron snorted. "Yeah, it was just hilarious. He hears a few snotty comments about us and decides to throw some back at them. Just as they are about to murder him, I decide to go in and help him out. Then they throw me in my locker!"

"OK, I will take some of the blame for this," T.J. sighed.

"SOME?"

"Both of you calm down," said Jared. "You can both be the idiots in this mess."

Abby punched him in the arm. "You're not helping!"

"Just trying to point out the obvious."

"How about helping them get out of the lockers instead?"

"Well that's no fun."

Rolling her eyes, Abby made her way towards Aaron's locker. "OK, what's your combo?"

"Five, Thirty-Six, Twenty-eight," Aaron answered.

She spun in the combination, opened the locker and out came Aaron breathing heavily.

"Thanks, Abs," he said. "I never thought I'd make it out before dinner."

"No problem. Now let's get the trouble maker himself."

T.J. grumbled. "You know I can hear you, right?"

"Yes, I do. Does anyone know the combination for the locker that T.J. is in?"

"I don't, but I can break into a locker very easily," Jared offered. "These locks are so ancient that it's almost too easy to break into them. You just need to know how to work them."

"That just makes me feel a whole lot better about the security of this school," she replied sarcastically. "But I'll take your word for it."

Jared gave a short nod before heading towards the locker that held T.J. captive. He pounded his fists to the locker, hit his knee to the bottom of the locker, and just like that the locker opened.

Jared smirked at them with pride. "Yeah, and that's how you do things here at Gotham High. Remind me to teach you guys this stuff before I leave this dump for good."

"Thanks for busting me out guys," T.J. looked around at them.

Aaron only glared at him. "Sure, just remind me not to defend you next time."

"I can't believe you got Aaron in trouble over a few bad comments," Abby nearly yelled at him.

"It wasn't just that time though," T.J. defended weakly. "They were mocking our robotic making skills during lunch."

"Oh, so dramatic! I really didn't want to say it like this, but you really need to know when to shut your mouth. I've been tolerate enough all day, but this just crossed the line."

"What? When your boyfriend decided to get involved?"

"No, when people are getting in trouble because of your big mouth. I feel like I'm babysitting a five year old for crying out loud!"

Aaron lightly tapped her on the shoulder. "Look, I'm sorry to interrupt your rant, but Jared and I have to go. Our mom's waiting for us to help her with her paintings."

"That's fine. I'll talk to you tonight."

Silence invaded the area until Aaron and Jared quietly walked away.

Abby stared at T.J. with an annoyed expression. "I really don't know what to do with you. I've tried to be friendly with you, but you don't seem to return the favor. Care to explain?"

For the first time T.J. was actually quiet. Not one word came out of him. Not even his mouth opened to say something. He only stared at the floor.

"Great, now you decide to be quiet," she pulled out her phone. "I'm going to text my dad and tell him we're on our way to Wayne Enterprises. I really hate to be the tattletale in this, but you leave me no choice."

"Go ahead," he responded coldly. "My gramps will hand me over to my aunt and uncle in Ohio. I guess I'd better get used to be tossed around everywhere."

Abby was taken aback by his outburst. "OK, first of all, I know for a fact that your grandpa won't just send you over to Ohio without putting some effort on you. You really underestimate him if you think that. Second of all, you don't have to think about it as being tossed around. My parents aren't married and I'm living in a different home each month. That's just my story out of a nutshell."

"As if your story is really like that. I've done my research, okay? You're Abby Wayne, the Princess of Gotham. You must be living a life of luxury right now."

She laughed humorlessly. "Are you serious? I can't even touch my money until I'm eighteen even though my dad is proved to be alive after a long period of time. I've never lived in luxury until about a year ago and that's every other month."

He rolled his eyes. "C'mon we both know that's not true. Your dad bought you a flat screen TV for your fifteenth birthday for crying out loud."

"Where did you hear that?"

"Tabloids and I had a few sources to confirm."

"You have sources…Forget that. Yeah sure, I did get an oversized TV for my birthday, but that is the most expensive gift I've gotten in my entire life. Plus my dad kinda went overboard since it was the first birthday of mine that he's been to in seven years or so. But please don't bring my personal life into this. We're going to Wayne Enterprises to straighten this out, whether you like it or not."

"Fine," he grumbled, obviously bothered.

"Don't worry," she reassured in a much calmer voice. "If I know Lucius, he'll give you another chance, but you need to give yourself another chance first before he can. And I'll give you one too if you improve which will probably lead to Aaron giving you another chance."

"Sounds great and everything, but I highly doubt Aaron will give me another chance. He sounded pretty angry with me."

"That's the thing with anger. It has to go away eventually and then we get to our better sense of mind."

"How do you know so much all of the sudden?"

"You could say I had experience. Now c'mon, my dad is probably waiting by now."

T.J. followed by her side as they made it out of the school. Abby only hoped the words that she spoke we're true about T.J.'s situation…whatever it was.

* * *

Thanks for reading! I just got off vacation and thanks to my new laptop, I am able to write away from home. I would like to point out though that the whole news scene does not belong to me. It was from the special features section of the Dark Knight DVD and can be found on YouTube as well. Anyway, I hope I can get the next chapter done soon before school starts up again. So we'll see how that works with my summer assignment, SAT prep, writing my novel and planning a new fanfiction for Heroes, the television show (the date for it to be published still hasn't been decided). See y'all next time!

~Emyrox567


	5. Masks

Masks

T.J. and Abby walked to Wayne Enterprises almost in complete silence. Abby really felt bad for T.J. in some ways. She had gone through something similar the year before. When Rachel had placed her with live with Bruce the first days of his reappearance, Abby was more than furious at her. But yet, it was the best thing that Rachel could've done for her. Abby learned so much about herself and how much Bruce really loved her. So maybe that's what T.J.'s parents' goal was for him. To make an improvement in his life as Rachel had done to Abby.

They approached the elevator and stepped inside. Abby remembered the meeting that Bruce had mentioned the night before and hoped that she wasn't going to disturb anything.

She watched as T.J. fiddled with his fingers. "Relax. You're going to face the music with your grandpa. You're not on your way to a death sentence, chill."

"Easy for you to say. You don't have an aunt who collects fake animals with eyes if I may add." T.J. gave a slight shiver.

"What did I say before? Lucius isn't going to send you anywhere because you bad mouthed to a couple guys which led to you and Aaron being thrown into a locker, or smart-mouthing me all day, or…what was my point again?"

"My gramps isn't going to send me somewhere else."

"Right, he isn't. I'll even convince him to let you stay here if you want."

"No, it looks like I have to do this on my own."

"If you say so."

The elevator doors opened revealing short light red-headed man standing in the entrance.

"Hello, Mr. Reese," Abby forced herself to put on a smile.

Coleman Reese was the lawyer in charge of Wayne Enterprise's spending. Abby didn't hate him nor did she trust him. She felt that he was after money more than anything else.

Reese moved aside. "Hello, Miss Wayne."

With T.J. following behind, Abby moved past Reese.

Lucius walked in with an Asian oriented man following behind. "Hello, Abby and Todd. This is a surprise."

"Yeah, I thought I'd visit my dad at work before I intoxicate myself with work," said Abby. "But T.J. is here to talk to you about something."

"Well that's fine. Let me have word with a couple of people first and I'll get to you Todd. Oh, by the way, this is Mr. Lau. He's head of Lau's Security Investments, one of the major businesses in Hong Kong."

"Wow…impressive. I never thought my dad would go global with his deals. I'm Abby Wayne, by the way."

"Yes, I've heard of you," said Mr. Lau. "You're Bruce Wayne's daughter?"

"Sure am and this guy next to me is Todd Fox. I'm gonna go in the other room and see if my dad's in there. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Lau…and it was nice to see you again, Mr. Reese."

Lau returned the favor. "Likewise, Miss Wayne."

Reese only gave her a curt nod. Abby left the room with T.J. all alone to fend for himself against a possible mobster, a greedy accountant, and his caring grandfather. Yep, she was doing good keeping an eye on the new guy. She just hoped Lucius would give T.J. another chance just like her predictions. Abby found Bruce staring out the window at the view of the city.

"Hey, Dad," she greeted as she went up to him.

Bruce smiled at her. "Hey there, Abby. How was day at school? Any better than yesterday?"

"Sort of. Renee wasn't there to torment me today, so that was the highlight. But T.J. is a different story."

"Is that why you brought him over here? So that Lucius can talk to him?"

"Yeah, basically. He's got a couple issues and I think Lucius knows what they are, so I think he can straighten him out."

"Since when are you in charge of fixing things?"

"Since when do you ask so many questions? Look, I'm just trying to help the people around me without wearing a costume. What's the harm in that?"

"There's no harm, but you can't fix everything."

She crossed her arms. "Says the vigilante himself. What happened to 'Batman has no limits'?"

"Nothing, but Abby Wayne has limits. Just be careful."

"I'll try. So, I just bumped into that Chinese mobster you were talking about."

"Really? Did he say anything?" he asked in almost a protective way.

"No. Just a few greets here and there. Relax; you can put down your claws now."

"Sorry, I thought that he would hold a grudge against me falling asleep during the meeting."

Abby looked at him with an un-amused look. "You feel asleep again?"

This had to be the tenth time this has happened. His nights as Batman seemed to be taking a toll on his sleeping patterns.

"It was a rough night last night," he argued.

"Sure, it was. So did you get to that trade off on time?"

"Yeah, but a couple other people might've made it before me."

Abby moaned. "The Copybats again. Dang, those guys are getting annoying."

"Copybats?"

"I just came up with it. Makes more sense than Copycats, if you think about it."

"I'll take your word for it, but anyway after I sorted the other Batmans out, I was able to stop Crane from trading off his drugs. That was all that really happened."

"So Crane got sent to Arkham?"

"That would be my guess, but he's going to be a doctor there again."

"That's for sure. I don't even think he was a good doctor anyway. Where else did you go since you obviously didn't get enough sleep?"

"I went over to the bank robbery sight and that was about it."

"You're still not gonna do anything about the clown?"

He shook his head. "No. The mob is the real root of this problem. If we get rid of the mob, we get rid of more than half of Gotham's criminal problem."

"But what if a new root grows by then? I mean crime just doesn't stop. Even places like New York and Metropolis still have their crimes."

"I'm saying that I'm putting crime to a permanent rest (if that were possible), but I'm just waiting until Gotham is ready to handle it on its own."

"I know…I just worry about you sometimes. The mob can be restless and now that they're desperate I feel like they're going to do something that will hurt you and…"

Bruce put an arm around her. "It's okay. You don't need to worry about me. I'll be able to handle the mob on my own. The only that can hurt me is if they came to you one day and held you for ransom."

Abby nervously bit her lip. "I wasn't exactly thinking of that of that possibility until now, but I'll keep note of it now."

"Just be aware of your surroundings and you should be fine."

"All right. I'll even throw in a couple of those moves that you showed me."

"Only when it's necessary, though."

"Well that's no fun," she teased. "I was going to plan on using it on Renee on some point in time."

"Oh God, what am I going to do with this child?" Bruce's eyes averted to the ceiling.

Abby giggled as she lightly hit him in the stomach. "Hey! That's mean!"

"Well, I didn't say I was a nice guy, now did I?"

"It's no wonder you can't go on more than one date with a girl. You say things before you think about it."

"My love life is none of your business. I stay out of yours, so stay out of mine."

"Oh really, Mr. Come-Into-My-Room-Unannounced-When-Aaron-Is-Over? Yeah, that's _really_ staying out of my love life. You even threw a rock at him!"

"That was year ago and it didn't seriously injure him."

"I know you want to protect me from everything, but fact is that you can't. You have to be able to accept that you're still human and there's no way you can keep me from the world."

Bruce pulled her in tighter. "I wish I could, but you're right. You're growing up and I need to accept that. It's just a little tough since I've missed one big chunk of your life."

"Dad, we've had this conversation before. I'm not a little girl anymore."

Before Bruce had the chance to respond, T.J.'s voice came from behind.

"Abby, we have to go. My gramps has some work to catch up on before he goes, so he was wondering if I could come over to work on homework with you."

Taking herself from Bruce's embrace, Abby turned to T.J. "Sure, if it's okay with my dad."

"I don't have a problem with it as long as Lucius is aware," said Bruce.

"He is and he said he'll pick me up before dinner," said T.J. "So can we go now, Abby?"

"Sure. I'll see you at home, Dad."

Abby began to walk out of the room with T.J.

Bruce gave a short wave to them. "I'll see you then and it was meeting you, T.J."

"You too, Mr. Wayne," T.J. called back.

When they were both in the elevator and past Lucius, Abby looked at T.J. expectantly. "So…how did it go?"

"Not as bad as I thought. He was a little angry with me about causing trouble, but he understood that change has its steps. So he told me to apologize to Aaron and everyone else and made me promise that I would improve."

"See? I told you underestimated Lucius."

"I guess I did. I thought since he was my dad's dad that he would be pretty harsh, but I guess the only reason my dad is strict with me is because he's pretty much fed up with me."

"Yeah. My mom was pretty much at the boiling point with me last year. Don't worry, it'll pass."

"I hope it does," he mumbled.

It was still somewhat quiet between them when they were doing homework in her room. They would occasionally ask each other questions, but it was strictly school related. T.J. had been dangerously quiet since the elevator. Abby didn't know if it was what she had said or what Lucius had said to have angered him, but she didn't like the silence. At the same time though, she didn't want to force him to say what was wrong. Last year she didn't like to talk about Bruce's apparent death to anyone, so maybe something like that was bothering him. He'll admit it sometime, she reminded herself. In the meantime, Abby now struggled to log into the school's website.

"I'm going to murder this website," she cursed out loud.

T.J. got up from the floor and stood beside Abby. "What's wrong?"

"It isn't logging me in and I need that assignment that Ms. Agrabolt gave us in chem."

"Here, step aside."

"You know how to negotiate with a website?"

"Something like that. Let me see the computer first."

"Fine," she got up from her chair. "Let's see what you got."

T.J. leaped into the chair. "I'm a little rusty now, so you're going to have to excuse me if I'm being a little slow."

"Sure, but slow at what?"

"You'll see."

Within a few seconds, T.J.'s fingers were all over the keyboard, typing furiously. Random black and blue screens popped up with a bunch of numbers and letters that didn't make sense to Abby. It was like T.J. was a machine! He didn't take his eyes off of the computer screen nor did his fingers stop typing. In the two minutes Abby had watched him, the screen returned to normal and he put his fingers to rest.

He got up from Abby's chair. "You give a shot now."

Abby sat back down in her chair and logged in once again. She watched in anxiety as the circle went around the screen. She couldn't believe it when her account page showed up. Whatever T.J. had done, it worked.

"T.J., what did you do? Give my computer steroids or something?"

"No, I just took down the fire wall of the site and fixed the bugs of the site that prevented you from logging in. Piece of cake."

"So you hacked it."

"That's one way to describe it, but yeah. It was habit of mine back in Michigan."

Abby threw a questionable look at his frown. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Yeah because I used it for bad purposes. It's kind of how I got expelled."

"Expelled? Expelled from school you mean?"

"No from Barney and Friends. Of course from school. Where else is there to be expelled from?"

"Right, that was a stupid question. But why?"

T.J. sighed. "As you probably know by now, I'm not exactly the person people wanna hang out with. So to get people to like me, I hacked the school's website many times to get the next test or the next day's homework. It was mostly for the football team, but when the time came that the principal found out, they said that I was using the answers for myself. I had to lie and say I did to spare my face, but I still would've gotten in trouble anyway."

"Did you ever need it in the first place?"

"No. I'm the type of person where almost everything in the classroom taught to me makes sense. Like today, I didn't even need the teachers to explain the subject to me in detail. The only reason I knew how to hack that stuff was because I was curious and messing with technology is quite a hobby of mine."

"So that's why your parents sent you to Gotham?"

"Yeah…to teach me what happens to people like me."

"I'm sorry about what happened, but you do know that those people weren't your friends, right? Especially if they put all of the blame on you," said Abby.

"I know that _now_. I feel like an idiot."

"We all have to feel like idiots to learn from our mistakes."

"That makes so much sense. Hey, look, I'm sorry about saying all of those things today. Even during the fight we had. Can you come to forgive me?"

"I will if you promise to improve."

"I promise. Now let's see if Aaron will forgive me."

"He will. If you're sincere and not arrogant, he will forgive you. Besides if you're nice like this you can make more friends besides mine."

He smiled at her smugly. "Try not to get used to it. I'll need my moments here and there."

"Then don't be surprised if I throw a punch anywhere in your body and have something to say to it."

"I guess that's fair enough…I think."

Abby didn't know where the time went, but next two days went like a flash. School hadn't gotten any better with Renee around, but Abby had done her best to avoid Renee at all costs. She figured if she just didn't talk or even see Renee that Renee would just get bored and move on. So far it's worked…somewhat. Abby still gets the occasional comments across the hall, but it's not as bad as it was before. As for T.J. though, things have definitely improved. He and Aaron made up and his attitude wasn't as obnoxious. They still got annoyed with him at times, but Abby and her friends had learned to deal with it. Plus he helped her with school whenever she needed it. If T.J. kept this up, he would fit into Gotham just fine.

Now it was Friday night and Abby was impatiently waiting for the popcorn to finish. Her and her friends were having their annual movie night that they have every month or so, except this time it included T.J. and was for the main purpose of Sasha having a night to herself. With her injury and taking care of her pregnant mother, Sasha was above the line of being stressed.

"Hey, Abby!" Sasha yelled from the living room. "The guys aren't here yet, so do you wanna pick a movie now?"

"Not until T.J. and Aaron get here!" Abby called back.

"But they're being slow pokes and all they want to watch is bunch of guys killing each other."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"They're gross and half of them don't even have a plot!"

"I'm pretty sure Aaron and T.J. would feel the same about the movie we might pick without them."

The time finally came when the microwave beeper went off. Abby took the hot bag of popcorn and poured into a large bowl set out on the counter. The doorbell rang in the distance. It must've been Heather. She had texted Abby earlier, telling her that Heather would be a little late. Unlike Aaron and T.J. Boys…what can you do?

"Come in!" Abby shouted at the door.

Abby took the full bowl of popcorn and ran to the living room. That was the first mistake she had made. The second was wearing socks when she knew very well that Alfred had just waxed the floors that day. When she tried to stop, her feet only slid across the floor.

"Heads up!" Still sliding, she collapsed to the floor causing her to throw the popcorn in the air.

Thankfully, the rug in the living room had stopped her from sliding anymore. As she sat up, Abby saw that the popcorn was not on the floor, but in Heather's arms.

Abby smiled proudly to herself. "And she sticks the landing!"

"And yet I'm the one with the injury," Sasha groaned from the couch next to her.

"At least the popcorn was saved," said Heather, brightly.

"Now we just have to wait until the guys get here."

"They're not here yet? I thought I would be the last one to get here."

Abby stood up. "Aaron's just probably begging Jared for a ride or something and as for T.J., I don't know what's holding him up. We'll just hang until then."

"That's cool. Did I tell you how amazingly big this penthouse is?"

"Yeah like a million times. So do you want anything else to eat besides popcorn?"

"No, but water would do just fine."

"Oh, right almost forgot about drinks."

Abby quickly walked back to the kitchen. Just like every month they would have movie nights, the four friends would trade off whose place they would go to for the movie event. Hers just happened to be while Abby was living with Bruce for the month which she found a little suspicious since her friends took a liking to the place. Abby didn't question it though. She trusted them enough to know that they would respect her home. Bruce came into the room as Abby was filling the glasses of water.

He looked at the five glasses and glanced up to Abby. "You're quite a thirsty girl, Abs."

"Not all of this is for me. It's my turn to host this month's movie night. I thought I told you that."

"It must've escaped my mind. You know you could've asked Alfred to that."

"Nah. He deserves a night off." Abby looked up to Bruce, realizing that he was wearing a suit. "Where are you going, dressed so nice like that?"

"I'm going on a date tonight with the prima donna ballerina of the Moscow ballet."

"I never thought you were a ballerina type of guy."

"Any woman is my type."

Abby rolled her eyes. "So where are you guys going?"

"The Ocelot."

"Sounds nice, but why does that name sound so familiar?"

"Maybe because I just bought it."

"No…I heard it somewhere else. Oh wait, Mom said she was going there with Harvey tonight. You wouldn't happen to know that, would you?" Abby eyed him suspiciously.

"Of course not. I just thought I'd take Natascha somewhere nice."

"If you're trying to lie to me now, you're not doing so well."

"I just want to meet Harvey," said Bruce.

"Fine, we'll go with that for now. Just know that I'm not stupid."

The door bell rang once again.

"Could you get that for me? I have to grab my wallet real quick."

"Sure."

Abby resisted a scowl as she went to answer the door. She knew it was Natascha even before she opened the door. It wasn't that there was a difference between the way Natascha and the guys rang the doorbell, but it was just a feeling that Abby had. She knew Bruce was using this ballerina chick to get to Rachel. It wouldn't work, but it proved even more that he was in love with her.

As Abby had predicted Natascha stood in the door way. She had her shiny blond hair tied into a bun and wore full length skin-tight black dress, showing only her shoulders. Yes, Bruce would date anybody to keep up his playboy name.

"Hello, I'm Natascha. Is Bruce home?" she asked in her thick Russian accent.

Abby stepped aside. "Yeah, he's just getting something. Why don't you come on in?"

Natascha stepped inside, obviously taking in her surroundings. "You're Bruce's daughter, Abby, right?"

"The one and only."

"Have you ever thought about dancing sometime in the future?"

"I'm the most clumsiest person in the world. Putting me in ballet shoes would be suicide for me."

"I see. So are you having a slumber party?" Natascha pointed towards Heather and Sasha.

"No, we're just having a movie night and we're still waiting on the guys to get here too."

"You're having boys over too?"

Abby caught the skepticism in her voice. "Yeah…the party would just be boring without them, you know."

"Party?"

"It's not one of those loud music type of parties, but it's one those just for fun parties."

"Who are these boys anyway?"

"One of them is my boyfriend and other guy is a friend from school."

"Oh."

"You thought I meant something else, didn't you?" she smiled smugly at the ballerina. "Don't worry all of my dad's dates fall for that."

"Good to know."

Bruce walked in looking from Abby to Natascha. "Hello girls. How's it going?"

"Pretty good," said Abby.

"Are you ready to go, Natascha?"

Natascha looped her arm around his. "Yes. It was nice meeting you, Abby."

"You too, Natascha," Abby returned. "Have fun, Dad."

"Don't cause any trouble and I'll be home by ten," Bruce pressed the elevator button.

"See you then."

Just before Bruce and Natascha had the chance to enter the elevator as it opened, Aaron and T.J. were in the way.

"I think I found what you were looking for, Abs," Bruce smirked at her.

"Thanks."

"Hey, Mr. Wayne," Aaron greeted as he and T.J. walked past him.

"Hey there, Aaron. Don't break anything while I'm gone."

"We'll try."

Abby gave Bruce one last wave before the elevator doors closed. "Yeah…she's not coming back here."

"Who was that chick with him anyway?" asked T.J. "She's hot."

"She's my dad's date tonight. She's the prima donna ballerina in the ballet that's in town."

"Your dad knows how to pick them. Maybe I'll go see that ballet myself."

"Tickets are already sold out, sorry. Let's go see which movie there's to watch."

Abby ventured to the living room to find DVDs spread all over the coffee table.

"It's about time you guys showed up," said Sasha. "We about to vote on _What Happens in Vegas_."

"Sorry," said Aaron. "It was hard to convince Jared to give me a ride here, so I had to call my dad to come and get me."

"And Aaron was my ride," T.J. added.

Heather held up two DVDs from the coffee table. "Well, since you guys were late, we already decided on two movies: _The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants _or _Get Smart_."

The boys chanted. "_Get Smart._"

"I vote for the Sisterhood, just to go for the classics."

Sasha agreed. "Definitely the Sisterhood. What about you, Abby?"

Abby hated being the odd end of the vote. She liked both movies, but tonight she really wasn't in the mood for mushy stuff.

"_Get Smart_," Abby answered.

Heather began to put the DVD in the DVD player. "_Get Smart_ it is."

"Why don't you guys sit down and I'll get the drinks?" said Abby.

She grabbed the tray of water from the kitchen and carefully walked back to the living room. Abby set the tray on the coffee table just moments before everyone grabbed a glass. She then took a seat next to Aaron against the couch.

"So are you relaxed yet, Sasha?" Aaron inquired.

Sasha nodded. "I sorta am now. With school and taking care of my mom, this is pretty good."

"Hey, I warned you about taking AP classes," said Abby.

"But it counts for college credit if you pass the AP test. And in college you have to pay for your classes."

"I can see your reasoning there, but I'm not taking an AP class until junior year."

"Fine, that's your choice. I'm just trying to save my parents a few bucks. Anyway, do remember me applying for that Journalism camp last summer?"

"Yeah, you said that it was weeklong camp and it was in Metropolis," said Heather.

Sasha smiled. "Plus you get to stay in college dorm and all that. Anyways, I got in!"

Heather embraced Sasha. "Congrats, Sasha! I knew you would make it!"

T.J. embraced Sasha as well. "I knew you would too."

Sasha's wide eyes rolled over to T.J. "What are you doing?"

"Congratulating you."

"I may not be able to get to my feet at this moment, but if you don't let go of me I will break you like a twig."

T.J. jumped away from Sasha. "Right. I'll just go sit over here."

Abby rolled her eyes. "So Sasha, when are you going?"

"I'm going the week after next week. You know the one we have off."

"How can I forget? It's about time Professional Growth week came."

"No kidding and I'll be off my crutches by then."

"Now the question is what am I going to do during that time?"

Aaron wrapped his arm around Abby's waist. "You've still got Heather and me. We'll figure something out."

"And don't forget about me," said T.J., raising his hand.

"Yes, T.J. how can we forget about you?"

"What can I say? I'm a people person."

"That was a rhetorical question."

"Right…"

Aaron was still slightly cold towards T.J., but for the most part he had forgiven T.J. In fact, they had been spending a lot of time together. It was nice to see Aaron having a guy friend. The movie stopped all of the talking for that night. It didn't matter if Abby had seen the movie for the tenth time, she still cracked up. Her goal that night was achieved, that was for sure. Sasha was able to relax for once. Since the fifth grade, Sasha had buried herself books. It was not once when Abby went over to Sasha in the playground that Sasha would be either doing homework or reading. Sasha was determined that was for sure.

After the movie was over, everyone's parents came and picked them up. With nothing else to do, Abby sat on the couch and watched the news for the night. There wasn't that much going on. A couple robberies, but they sure didn't involve a clown. Maybe the clown just wanted to stay under a low profile so that the police couldn't catch him that time. Abby could bet that the next time he strikes that he would be dressed as another carnie. That's all it seemed to be considering how quiet he's been the past few days.

Abby heard the elevator doors open and close as she was about ready to go to bed. She got up from the couch and began to head up the stairs.

"Hey there, Abby. What are you doing up so late?" Bruce's voice came up from behind.

Abby turned to him. "Going to bed. How come you were an hour late? Were you having too much fun with Natascha?"

"Hardly. After I left dinner, I went to do some patrolling. There wasn't that much going on so I just came home for the night."

"Well that's a first. You usually sleep at the bunker for the night."

"Yeah, that's a habit I can't seem to let go of."

"So did you see Mom and Dent at the restaurant?" she asked.

"I did…and we all had dinner together in fact."

"Sounds interesting. Did you find anything out about him?"

"Nothing except that Gotham is in good hands with Harvey as the DA. That's why I decided to throw a fundraiser for him for next election."

"That's in three years."

Bruce shrugged. "Better to be safe than sorry."

"Whatever. Just as long as this party doesn't end up like the last one."

"Don't worry. It's all going to be different this time."

"Hopefully," Abby began to head up the stairs. "Night, Dad."

"Goodnight, Abs."

* * *

Thanks for reading! Turns out I have a lot of time in my hands. I didn't think I'd update this fast, but I literally have the whole story planned so it shouldn't be that big of a hassle now. I put up a description of the next fanfiction I plan to do after this one. I also put up a poll on what you think of it, just to see how many people will be interested. But it's not in this category unfortunately. Mostly because the next movie of Batman doesn't come out until 2012, so I gotta branch out a little bit. So if any of you have watched Heroes, you will probably enjoy this fanfic I'm planning to write. Until next time.

~Emyrox567


	6. The Art of Secrecy

The Art of Secrecy

It was Monday once again and Abby was walking across the school courtyard looking for her friends. The weekend had gone by too fast for Abby's taste. On Saturday, Abby went with Bruce to get a dress for Dent's fundraiser and as for Sunday she spent the day with Aaron. It was a very enjoyable weekend, but it still went too fast. She found Aaron and T.J. sitting on a bench nearby their first class.

She smiled. "Hey guys. How was the weekend?"

"Pretty good," said T.J. "Aaron and I went to GameStop on Saturday and rented out a few video games."

"Yeah, he mentioned that. Well, I went to shop for a dress with my dad on Saturday and basically spent the rest of the day with him."

"What's the dress for?"

"This fundraiser that my dad is throwing for Harvey Dent. You guys are invited by the way…and please come. I'd rather not spend the whole night talking to a bunch of people that I don't know."

Aaron gave her an inquisitive look. "Sure, but why is your dad throwing him a fundraiser? He's not up for election for another three years or so."

"That's what I said. But he has his mind set on Dent being the next DA again, so I can't really argue with him."

"You're dad knows Harvey Dent?" T.J. asked incredulously.

Abby rolled her eyes. "It's kind of hard for him not to. My mom is dating him."

"Whoa, girl. You're connected to some pretty powerful people."

"I could say the same for you."

"Yeah, but to me Lucius is still my gramps despite being the CEO of Wayne Enterprises."

"Exactly, T.J. it doesn't matter how rich my dad is or how many celebrities he knows, he is and will always be my dad."

"Very well said. Now if you don't mind us getting off topic, I'd like to make a proposition."

Aaron moaned. "Not this again. I told you, she won't go for it."

"What exactly is this proposition?" Abby inquired.

T.J. proceeded to his so called proposition. "All right, I've been hearing about this Renee chick around school and I heard that you and she have some issues. I'm thinking that we can do this big prank on her that involves a few secrets being leaked about her."

"No, T.J., we're not going to make up random things about Renee and text them to everyone."

"They're not made up. I've actually done my research on this. It turns out that her dad never wanted to hand down their family business, Kendal Networks, to Renee, but yet it says here in the records that she's next in line for the business. I did extensive research yesterday on why that was and found that she paid off her little brother, Jason to reject his father's proposition to accept the company when he was old enough."

"How did you find that out?"

"I found it on some security tape taken about a year ago. So what do you think about it? We threaten to leak this information about Renee and she'll leave you alone for the rest of high school."

Abby was speechless. She didn't realize that Renee would go as low as this to get what she wanted. Sure, Abby realized that Renee was persistent, but never would have guessed that she would go to that length (not counting the incident with Sasha of course). Abby didn't even know that Renee had a brother, now that she thought about it. As wrong as Renee was to do that, Abby still couldn't see herself using this as leverage to get Renee to leave Abby alone.

She sighed. "I'm sorry, T.J. I can't. Unlike Renee, I actually have a conscience and it would be wrong to bribe her with this."

"She told the world that you were Bruce Wayne's daughter," T.J. tried to convince her further more. "Don't tell me that you don't have one feeling of revenge in there."

"I don't want…revenge. Sure she interrupted my once normal life, but getting revenge is not the way to teach her a lesson. By the way, this isn't a prank we're talking about here. It's bribery."

"So what? She'll see what you've done to her and back off."

"Tell me, T.J., is this how you handle these situations? Fight fire with fire? Trust me, I've done that for years and that's gotten me nowhere with Renee."

"If you don't fight with fire then you're just going to get burned."

"Give it up, dude," said Aaron. "She's not going to do it."

"Fine, like good little angels, we'll leave it alone," T.J. groaned. "But just out of curiosity, why are you letting this go?"

"I'm sick of fighting with Renee," Abby stated firmly. "And doing this gamble that you've decided to throw will provoke the feud even more."

Aaron smiled. "You're dad talked to you, didn't he?"

"Maybe…"

"The real question here, T.J. is why are you even thinking about doing this? You haven't met Renee in person."

T.J. ran his hand through his short curly brown hair. "It's just that I thought owed you, Abby. I know that I can be a piece of work sometimes, but you were one of the few that stuck with me. I only wanted to do something to thank you."

Abby was taken aback by his confession. "Well, you're welcome, T.J. But you don't owe me anything. I was doing it for unselfish purposes."

"I know, but it's one of those in debt things that you can't let go of. Speaking of that, instead of bringing your enemy down, I'll just bring you something."

"Please don't waste your money on me. You'll make me want to owe you."

"Trust me, I won't me doing that. I'll just give you what I have now."

T.J. began digging through his bag. Abby looked at Aaron with wary eyes. She really did appreciate the thanks that T.J. was giving her, but she felt that this was too much. Besides, who knew what was in that bag of his. Her worry suddenly turned into curiosity as he handed her on what looked to be an iPhone.

She pushed it back to him. "Thanks, but I can't take your phone."

He shook his head. "It's not an iPhone, if that's what you're thinking. It's a tracking system. One sample of DNA whether it's a fingerprint or a sample of hair and this baby is able to track down anyone you want. Oh, and I added a feature where you can enter phone numbers too to track down cell phones in case the DNA thing doesn't work out."

"You made this?"

"Yep. I make gadgets when I'm bored. You wouldn't believe how many were in my suitcase when I came here."

Abby slipped the DNA tracker into her bag. "Wow…Once again I feel that I have done nothing with my free time. Thanks a bunch, T.J. I don't know who I'll track down, but appreciate the gesture."

"No prob. It's the least I can do."

The first bell rang for the day.

Aaron got up from his seat. "Let's get going. I'm pretty sure we'll see Sasha and Heather in class sometime today."

Nodding, Abby and T.J. followed Aaron into their history class. Once again nothing happened in history class except the usual lecture about the Romans. Abby fought to stay awake in that class, she didn't even know how many times. Thankfully the class went by quicker than usual that day which allowed Abby and Aaron to head towards Music Appreciation class. She didn't understand why she had to take it other than it fulfilled her fine arts requirement, but she was stuck in the class nonetheless.

Aaron and Abby sat in their usual seats in the music room as the late bell rang.

"Okay," their teacher, Mrs. Berkley said. "Today we're just going to continue what we were doing last Friday. In case you were in another world during that time, I will brief you on your assignment once again. Each of you will get into a group of either two or three people and compose a song using at least one vocalist and one instrument of your choice. I hope to have this done by the end of class, but if you need more time I'll extend it into tomorrow's class. Go ahead and get working now."

"I'll get the guitar real quick, but do me a favor and get my song book out of my bag," said Aaron before leaving.

Abby obeyed Aaron's orders and pulled out his thin hardcover book from his bag. Ever since that day when Aaron came to visit Abby because of Bruce's "sickness" and preformed that song for them, he'd been keeping record of the songs that he wrote. Some were great and others were just random. She remembered Aaron writing a song on how mad he was at Jared for breaking his phone. That was one of the random ones.

Aaron returned with the guitar from the other room. "Do you remember if we wrote a song last week or decided on a song in the book?"

"Not really. I remember us discussing about it, but we didn't exactly make progress."

"Well, let's go into one of the rooms and start on it then."

"Right with ya."

Abby followed Aaron into one of the small practice rooms. She closed the door behind her and sat in one of the two seats in the room.

"What about that song that I heard you singing last week?" Abby suggested. "You know the one that sounded all depressing and was inspired by World War II?"

Aaron bit his lip. "I don't know about that one. It's still kind of in bits and pieces."

"We can still work from that. It sounded pretty good when I came into the room."

"Fine, we'll take a look at it." He flipped through his book until he got the page titled: "Somebody To Save".

"Like I said before," he sighed, "it's not in the greatest shape."

"Don't worry, that's why we're working on it."

"Okay this is what I have so far: 'I can't breathe…I feel like I'm gonna die…I wanna say things are getting better, but that would be a lie…I can see the clouds closing in…The darkness taking over…I wanna get out…I don't want to see anybody suffer anymore'—and that's about it."

"All right we have the beginning part down," said Abby. "What about the bridge? Have you thought about how that would go yet?"

"I've tried, but I can't seem to find where to go from here. Why don't you take a whack at it? Maybe something will click."

"Okay, let me think about this for a sec." Abby glanced at the title of the song once again. "Wait what about this: 'Then I see your face and know that things are gonna get better.'"

"Not bad and then we can speed up the tempo and add something like 'you're the reason I haven't gone insane' or something like that."

"Definitely."

Abby and Aaron spent the rest of class going through and writing the song. This was the first time she had co-written with Aaron with any of his songs. He usually was the one to work alone in this type of art. But this time he let her put in her opinion despite her lack of experience. Abby enjoyed it at the least. Aaron was the one who came up with notes and the beat while Abby added in a few lyrics. They finally finished with five minutes left in the class.

Abby looked nervously at the clock. "Now that we're done with the song, who's gonna sing it tomorrow?"

"It's definitely not going to be me. You've heard me trying to sing for years and obviously there's no improvement."

"I heard a slight improvement when you sang today," Abby tried to convince him.

He looked at her in disbelief. "Slight? What about you then? You can sing the song to spare our classmates' ears."

"I don't know. I've never sung before…and I get a little bit of stage fright."

"It's okay. Mrs. Berkley isn't grading us on how great we can sing anyway."

"Then why aren't you singing?"

"I'm playing the guitar and we need at least one vocalist in the group. I promise you it will be over before you even know it. Plus, you owe me like twenty, remember?" Aaron smirked.

Abby huffed. She hated it when he played that card on her regardless of how true it was. "Fine. Just please send me the song tonight so I can practice."

"Sure thing."

The bell rang for second period. Abby stood up from her seat and headed towards the door.

Aaron's voice stopped her. "Wait, Abs. Can I ask you something?"

Abby turned to face him. "Sure. What do you need to ask?"

"Nothing important really, but do you ever get the feeling that something is about to happen?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean like this thing in your gut telling you something's wrong."

"Once or twice, but not lately if that's what you're asking."

"Well, I've been getting that feeling for awhile now. I don't know what it is but I don't like it. Ever since I've heard about the robbery with the clown last week…I just…I just don't feel right anymore. And that's just the thing. I can't figure out why I would be feeling this way. Nothing is wrong in my life right now. I have my family, I have you, my friends, and school seems to be going well so far. I don't know what the heck is going on."

"I'm pretty sure it's nothing, Aaron," Abby reassured. "Maybe you're just being a little bit paranoid."

"Yeah, maybe. When I heard of that robbery, I thought you mainly because of your fear of clowns."

"I'm actually kind of over that."

"I'd figure just as much. I guess I am just being paranoid, but the feeling's still there you know."

Abby took his hand. "I know, but the best thing we can do right now is stay calm."

"You know I love you, right?" he smiled.

"Sure do and I love you too."

They shared a small kiss before getting ready to head to their next class.

Before Abby had known it, lunch had come around. She gathered with her friends at their usual spot and began to eat the sandwich that Alfred had packed her.

"So, Abby," said Sasha in between bites of her food. "I heard your dad was having a fundraiser for Harvey Dent."

"I was about to tell you that, but where did you hear it?" Abby questioned.

"From T.J. He wouldn't stop talking to me in English and he just happened to mention it. So what gives? He's not up for election in three years."

"I know he's not, but my dad insists in throwing him one since he seems to like Dent as the current DA."

"Is going to be one of those boring types of parties again?" Heather groaned.

"Yes, but please come," Abby nearly begged. "I really don't want to be alone with my mom, dad, and Dent in the same room."

"Fine. We'll make it a group thing like what we did for your dad's birthday party last year."

"Sounds good to me. The only thing different this time is that T.J. is joining us."

Aaron's head turned from left to right. "Speaking of T.J., where is he?"

"He said he was going to buy lunch and meet us here, but that was like ten minutes ago," Heather answered.

"It's probably just the lunch line that's holding him up."

"Probably. I heard they were serving Sloppy Joes with chocolate cake today."

"Oh, there he is," Aaron pointed to the middle of the courtyard.

Abby looked into the direction that Aaron was pointing. T.J. made his way over to where they were sitting with a tray full of food. From the corner of her eye, she could see Renee walking with Riley, giggling as she did so. Abby didn't see why somebody would want to date Renee. She clearly had no morals and couldn't be trusted. Renee looked towards Abby's way and gave her a glare. Abby returned the glare and turned back to her food. It was then a loud shrieking scream sounded through the entire school.

Abby turned her head to the direction of the shriek. Her eyes went wide. Renee stood in front of T.J., her eyes burning in front of him. Abby wondered why Renee was giving him such a look until she realized that T.J.'s tray was on the ground and the food was all over Renee's designer top and skirt.

"You stupid clumsy geek," Renee seethed through her teeth loud enough for the whole school to hear. "This was a one thousand dollar outfit!"

"Look, I'm _really _sorry," T.J. stuttered.

Riley grabbed the collar of T.J.'s shirt. "You better be twerp!"

Abby sprang to her feet and sprinted towards them. Riley's fist was only inches from hitting T.J.'s face until Abby grasped his fist.

"Really, Riley?" Abby smirked. "Picking on the new kid? Now I know that's below you."

Riley pulled his fist back. "Well, he shouldn't have poured his lunch all over Renee."

"It was an accident, I swear!" T.J. quickly defended himself.

"Then you need to watch where you're going."

Abby glowered at Riley. "The same should go for you."

"Why the sudden bravery, Wayne?" Renee's frown formed into a mischievous cat grin. "You've been avoiding me all week. Why choose now to face me?"

"Maybe because your boyfriend was about to beat T.J. up and it had nothing to do with you."

"At least it would be more than what your own boyfriend could do for you. If this happened to you, he would probably just stand there."

"No, he wouldn't. Unlike Riley, Aaron would act rationally about the situation."

"I guess you could think of it that way. By the way, your friend better watch where he's going or else there will be real trouble."

"That's it," she snapped. "I'm tired of this. Ever since we've met, you've tried to make my life worse than it has to be. What have I done to deserve this, Renee? I tried to be friendly with you, but you just put me down instead."

"You're weak, that's why. Sure you fight back every time, but when I decide to pick on any of your friends or your family for that matter, you get emotional. That punch you gave me last year wasn't out of reason. It was purely because you couldn't control your emotions. That's the thing about emotions: if you don't know how to control them, they kill."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Abby said barely over a whisper.

"Oh, I know what I'm talking about. Ever since your dad left, your emotions have become haywire. You avoided everybody when he left like they were a disease and then you got angry at the world. Sure, you're ten times better than you were eight years ago now because he's back, but how long is it going to be until he leaves again?"

Abby clenched her fist. "Stop it, now."

"Face it, Wayne: you're a failure. You're even a failure in your father's eyes as long as you don't keep your emotions in check. I'm surprised that he's stuck around for this long with you."

"I said, stop it right now. Do you really want another broken nose?"

Renee pointed in the other direction. "That's if the teachers watching us will allow it."

Abby looked in that direction and saw a group of teachers walking by them.

"Remember what happened last time?" Renee mocked.

"I do and you're getting off lucky this time. But don't doubt that I won't try it again."

"When will that be? In a dark alley?"

"It doesn't matter. Anywhere would be suitable for your very low moral standards." Abby grasped T.J.'s arm. "C'mon, let's go."

Abby led T.J. away from the scene. She couldn't believe how low Renee could really be. She had clearly remembered Renee's taunts from the many years her father had disappeared, but none of them compared to how devious she sounded just moments before. Abby wanted to punch her more than anything. The only thing that was keeping her from doing so of course was not the teachers, but her promise to Bruce to try to work things out. Abby knew that what Renee said wasn't right. She wasn't emotional and Bruce loved her more than anything. He leave would never leave her again like that.

She finally stopped tugging on T.J.'s arm when they met with Aaron, Sasha, and Heather. All of whom were standing straight up (with the exception of Sasha being on her crutches).

T.J. rubbed his arm. "Ow, that hurt."

"Sorry, I probably released my anger on you by accident," said Abby.

Aaron put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay, Abs? I heard what Renee said."

"I'm fine, but definitely didn't like the reminder that Renee gave me of last year."

"I never knew Renee could be that cold," Heather muttered.

Sasha snorted. "I realized that her heart was made of ice when she put me on crutches for two weeks."

"I meant with her words, but I guess that counts too."

"No wonder you guys hate that chick," said T.J. "Her boyfriend nearly shredded me to bits."

"That's why we try to stay clear of her nowadays," Aaron mumbled and then faced Abby. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. They're just words." Even Abby didn't believe herself when she said that.

Before Aaron could say anything about it, the bell echoed throughout the courtyard.

"I gotta get to class," Abby went over to grab her bag. "Mr. Kelly will kill me if I'm late to his class again."

"I guess I'll see you in P.E. then." Aaron kissed her lightly on her forehead.

"See you then, Aaron." Abby faced Heather and Sasha. "I'll see you guys too."

"And so will I," T.J. added.

Aaron, Heather, and Sasha rolled their eyes at T.J., gave one final wave and headed off into the opposite direction.

Abby gave T.J. an annoyed look. "Was that really necessary?"

"In my book, yes."

"Whatever—we need to get to Geometry. I can't afford to be late."

"Ditto, so let's go."

With T.J. along her side, they both went across the courtyard. It was mostly silent between them during their short trip. Abby still unconsciously replayed the incident with Renee through her head. Usually after a situation like this, Abby would move on with her life after any encounters with Renee, but this time was different. She couldn't decide whether or not what Renee said was true. Granted Renee had her share of lies, but when Renee really wanted to be honest, she was right. Abby only wanted to forget it ever happened.

They walked past a group of boys when Abby distinctly heard one of the boys say, "So is everything in order?"

"Yep, our Batman team thing should be in order for tonight now," said another boy.

Abby stopped dead on her tracks. She ignored T.J.'s question on why they had stopped and listened intently to what the group of boys were saying.

The first boy spoke again. "So where should be go for our first night out?"

"The Narrows definitely," said a third boy. "There's danger everywhere."

Abby turned to the boys. "Yeah, if you're looking for danger then the Narrows is definitely the place."

The first boy glared at her. "Since when did we include you in this conversation?"

All of the other boys followed his glare. They were much taller than Abby or T.J. ever was and were strongly built. Abby didn't exactly see them as intimidating, but yet they didn't seem like the kind of people you'd want to mess with.

"Never. I just heard you talking about doing some Batman stuff. What, is one of you guys the Batman or something?"

"No, but we plan to help him out," one of the boys smiled smugly.

"You mean annoying him with your attempts to take down the thugs of this city. Yeah, that sounds like a definite plan to me."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean you're not just going to run into the usual thugs. Those guys are easy compared to whack jobs like Scarecrow. Do you really want to be sprayed with his fear toxin?"

"Scarecrow's in Arkham now. We won't have to worry about him."

"I guess you're right on that," said Abby, nodding her head. "But you still haven't considered the mob. Now that they're desperate, I'd expect them to be a lot more vicious. Imagine while cruising through the night as Batman and someone grabs you from behind. What kind of torture devices do you think they'll use if they think you're the real Batman, huh? I sure wouldn't like to find out."

All of the boys went deathly quiet at her presumption.

Abby grinned at them. "Well good luck with your first night as Batman. Hopefully the mob isn't too bored tonight."

She turned away from them and headed back into the path of her math class.

"Maybe we shouldn't go," she heard one of the boys mutter.

Abby smirked. They were definitely not Batman material. Even if they were she still would've done the same thing for the sake of her father. From the various stories of the "Copybats" that Bruce had told her, they had only got in the way of what Bruce was trying to do.

"What was with that anyway?" T.J. inquired.

"I was just trying to prove to them that Batman is Batman and no one can replace him."

"What is it with this city and this guy? Is he like your guys' idol or something?"

Abby bit her lip. "I wouldn't say that he was an idol, but he's been cleaning up the city for the past year or so. This is the lowest crime rate we've had in years."

"So you're letting a guy dressed up as a bat clean up your city."

"That's the basic idea of it, but it's only until Gotham is stable enough to take care of itself."

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "How—"

Jared's voice stopped T.J. in midsentence. "Hey, guys."

"Hi, Jared," Abby gave a small smile.

"Do you have a sec?"

"I have three minutes left to get to my next class, so sure. What do you want to talk about?"

"I'm just letting you know not worry about those guys that you told off. They're not actually going to go out tonight as Batman."

"Then why did they say they were?"

"They were bluffing. They think it'll get them girlfriends or something, but you still need to be careful. One of those guys' dads is one of the escapees from Arkham last year and my dad's been investigating his home. He suspects that his family may be hiding him."

"What exactly is your point here?"

"Be careful what you say…especially around him. He could tell his dad one thing about you and next thing you know you're being hunted by one of the most feared criminals."

Abby gulped. "I'm pretty sure it's not that big of a deal. Besides I didn't say anything insulting to them and what would a lunatic want with me anyway?"

"You're really asking that, _Princess_?" T.J. added sourly.

She paused. Would being the daughter of Bruce Wayne cause her to become a human target? As far as she knew Bruce hadn't done anything to make a criminal less than happy. The only reason that she could come up with on why someone would come after her was for money. Batman on the other hand was a different story. If people knew she was the daughter of Batman then she might as well dye her hair blond, work in a diner in Canada, and go by the name of Goldie.

Before she could ask the first question that came into her mind, the bell rang.

"Dang it! I'm late again!" she quietly cursed.

"And you're dragging me down with you," T.J. growled.

Jared smiled smugly at them. "I'd like to help you guys out, but I have to get to work. I'll see you around."

T.J. whispered to her as Jared left. "I sure can't wait to be a senior."

"No kidding. Let's go to class and face Kelly's wrath before security catches us in the hall."

As they continued to walk though, she still had her conversation with Jared in her mind. What _would_ a lunatic want with her?

* * *

Hey guys, sorry if this was late. I started school three weeks ago and work is still being pilled on me. I will get the next chapter out, but I don't know when though. Anyway, hopefully I'm not boring you to death yet. I'm trying to build up the action just right before the Joker starts to step in. And for those of you who are asking when he shows up, it will be soon. Till next time.

~Emyrox567


	7. Burn Out

Burn Out

"So…Abby, I was wondering…is Sasha seeing anybody?"

Abby rubbed the temples of her forehead. "I've answered this before and I'll answer again, T.J. Yes, she is seeing somebody."

T.J. moaned on the other side of the phone conversation. "But you haven't told me who yet."

"Would good that do you anyway? It's not like you can actually put up a good fight."

"I wasn't concentrating on fighting, but I was thinking about talking to him."

"Talking?" she snorted.

"Yeah and tell him…"

"Exactly, T.J., you will say nothing to him because you have nothing to say besides 'Sasha's my girl.'"

"It's worth a shot. So, are you gonna tell me?"

"No, now stop pestering me and move on. It was only a few days worth of a crush."

A knock came from her bedroom doorway. She looked up and saw Bruce.

"Hey, you have not met me until you realize how persistent I am," T.J. argued.

Abby gestured for Bruce to come in. "As much as I want to discuss this all night, T.J. I really have to go."

"Fine, but you haven't heard the end of this."

"Move on." Abby pressed the end button on her phone and looked up to Bruce. "Hey, Dad."

Bruce took a seat next to her on her bed. "Hey, Abs. What's T.J. up to this time?"

"The usual. He likes Sasha and he can't get over that she's going out with this other guy."

"Ah, teen drama."

"I know, its Shakespeare's _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ in real life. So what's up with you?"

"I need to talk to you about something. Lau got away with the mob's money and he can't get charged when he's in another country. So, I'm planning to go to Hong Kong for a couple days to convince him to come back."

Abby smirked. "So Batman's going international?"

"I guess you could say that. Now, both Alfred and I will be gone during that time so you'll have to stay at your mom's during that time."

"Why can't you just take me with you? Tomorrow's Friday and I have the rest of the week off."

"This is isn't a regular business trip that I take for Wayne Enterprises. This is Batman business. I can't spend my time worrying about you while I'm trying to catch Lau."

Abby groaned in defeat. "Fine, I get it. But at least you can kidnap your enemies anytime you want. I have to be the good person and let the bad guy go or else it'll just prove to them that I have the same moral standards as them."

Bruce shot her a puzzled look. "Are we talking about Batman and Lau here or you and Renee?"

"A little bit of both I guess…"

"What happened?"

Abby hated it how he somehow knew something was wrong. She didn't know whether it was the tone in her voice or his fatherly instincts, but she was annoyed yet appreciative of it.

"I don't know," she sighed. "A couple days ago, Renee tried to hurt T.J. and when I stepped in, she started to throw things that I don't normally pay attention to. The part that I can't get over is that I did nothing. To add to that, I can't get what she said out of my head."

"What did she say?"

"She talked about me being overemotional and how you leaving affected that. I'll admit it did, but that can't be the reason why I am the way I am. Do you think that's why I act this way?"

"Act in what way, Abby? As far as I know you're smart, open minded, beautiful and kind to anyone you meet."

"Hm, that's when I want to be."

"That's just my way of telling you not to listen to a word that Renee says." Bruce gave her a kiss on her forehead.

"Thanks, Dad. But the other thing that's been kind of bothering me and this is just a hypothetical question, so don't freak out, okay?"

"I'll try to stay calm."

She took in a deep breath. Abby had been contemplating whether or not she should ask such a question. Ever since becoming Gotham's Dark Knight, Bruce had grown paranoid over her safety. He even went ecstatic over her getting a bruise from boxing practice once. She would have to be gentle about this.

"Would it be possible that," she began, "a criminal could come after me not because I'm Batman's daughter, but because I'm Bruce Wayne's daughter?"

"Possibly. For ransom, maybe. Why? Is there someone bothering you?"

Abby caught the immediate concern in his voice. "No. I'm just curious. I can understand people coming after me because of Batman, but not the other way around."

"Good. I wouldn't want you to think for a second that you are in any kind of danger. I make sure of that every night."

"Basically there's nothing to worry about?"

"Exactly. I promise you nothing bad will happen while I'm around."

Bruce pulled her into an embrace. Abby wanted to believe what Bruce said, but the thought still lingered in her head. Aaron's worries had plagued her thoughts as well. She didn't want to believe that something bad was going to happen, but the feeling was still there. Maybe it was best to forget it even existed to help her sleep better at night.

Abby was riding in the back of Jared's truck with Aaron after an afternoon at the mall the next day. She had bid her goodbyes to Bruce and Alfred that morning before they had left to Hong Kong. Now she was taking a ride from Jared and Aaron to her mother's home.

Jared pulled up to the front curb of Rachel's home. "Is your mom home yet?"

Abby looked over to the dark home. Only the front lights of the home were on as it began to grow dark in Gotham.

"No," she answered him. "She's out at this ballet with Dent, but I have a key with me."

"All right then. Just call us if there are any problems."

"Will do."

Aaron kissed her swiftly on the lips. "I'll see you later."

"I'll see you too," Abby smiled.

With one last wave towards Jared, she left the car and headed towards her front porch. She took out her key, but as she inserted it into the hole her phone vibrated in her pocket.

She answered it. "Hello?"

"Are you home yet, Sweetheart?" Rachel's voice came.

Abby opened the door. "I'm just getting inside."

"Good. So did you have fun at the mall with your friends?"

"Yeah. Wait, aren't you supposed to be at the ballet with De—Harvey?"

"We were supposed to, but plans change. You can thank your father for that."

After closing and locking the door behind her, she turned all of the lights on. "And why should I be thanking him?"

"When your dad left he took the Russian ballet with him."

Abby was shocked by this. She knew that Bruce would have to do something to prevent the press from being suspicious of his activities, but she never knew that he would use the whole ballet.

"I'm pretty sure he had some very legitimate reasons."

Rachel didn't take the suggestion lightly. "I don't really care about his excuses now, Abby."

"Sorry, geez. So are you on your way home now?"

"Yes, I'll be home in a minute or so."

"Okay, I'll see you then."

Abby hung up after Rachel's farewell. She took a seat on the couch and turned on the TV. There wasn't much on. It was strange considering it was a Friday. All there seemed to be on was soap operas that she could care less about. When she found a movie that she hadn't seen in a while, she stopped looking through channels. Barely paying any attention to the movie she relaxed on the couch. Just as the main character was about to save his girlfriend from the villain, Abby heard the door open.

"Abby, I'm home," Rachel called.

Abby called back. "I'm in the living room."

She turned her head over in time to see her mother enter the living room wearing a formal dress.

"So how was your day?" Rachel asked.

"School was boring, but the mall was fun. How was yours besides the ballet getting cancelled and everything?"

Rachel sat next her on the couch. "It was okay. We're still scrambling around for Lau, but other than that everything's fine. So how does leftover spaghetti sound for dinner tonight?"

"Not bad. I'm starving so I'll take it."

"Rachel?" said a foreign voice from the doorway. "Where are you?"

"We're in here, Harvey," Rachel answered the unknown voice.

Abby couldn't believe what she was hearing. The voice at the doorway sounded familiar yet Abby didn't want to wrap her mind around it. Her worries were confirmed when he came walking into the living room. Harvey Dent stood in front of them, smiling. Abby was in too much of a shock to even responding to this situation.

Rachel got up to greet him with a kiss on his cheek. "Is the car parked, okay?"

"Yeah, I just had to park it behind yours if don't mind of course."

"That's fine." Rachel's eyes moved from Dent to Abby. "Abby, this is Harvey; he's going to join us for dinner tonight."

Dent held out a hand towards Abby. "Pleasure to meet you."

Abby had only spoken to Dent once or twice, but it was easy to see that he had the habit of smiling. He would always smile when he was greeting someone, in front of the camera or probably to even lie. His appearance made his smile fit. He had golden blond hair, a tall composure, and blue eyes. You could say that he looked just like a Ken doll.

Abby only stared at his hand. "Likewise."

Dent took back his hand without another word. Rachel broke the awkward silence. "I'll go get changed into something comfortable and start on dinner. In the meantime you two can just stay in here. Feel free to sit down anywhere you like, Harvey."

"Are you sure you don't want me to heat up the food now, Mom?" Abby asked, almost desperate. "I mean it could save us some time."

Rachel shook her head. "Nah. You deserve a little bit of rest after a day at school and at the mall with your friends. It won't take me that long anyway. Harvey, you go ahead and make yourself comfortable and I'll let you know when dinner is ready."

"Great," Harvey gave a warm smile as Rachel left.

Abby resisted the urge to groan in defeat. She knew Rachel didn't want her to rest after a restless Friday. In fact, Rachel made Abby clean and put away the dishes one evening after a tiring boxing practice because she was slacking behind in her chores. Abby knew what Rachel's motives were in this: to make Abby actually have a conversation with Harvey Dent. _Don't expect me to warn you next time, _her mother had said only the week before. Rachel had been true to her word indeed.

Dent took a seat into the armchair next to the couch. When he turned to look at her, she returned her attention to the movie she was watching. None of them spoke a word for what it seemed to be hours. Abby wasn't even fully paying any attention to the movie. Her focus kept going back to Dent and how he was only feet away from her. The silence brought her back to a year ago when Bruce came back after his long absence. Then, she couldn't seem to keep up a full conversation with him without contradicting him. But it was different with Dent. She didn't hate him nor like him. She didn't even _know_ him. Abby knew enough that he wouldn't do anything to hurt Rachel, but not enough to actually know him.

"So," Dent was the first to speak. "How's school?"

"Boring and irrelevant," Abby only said about the manner.

"Your mother told me that you're on the boxing team. How's that going?"

"We're out of season now, but we did win the last game."

"That's great. So is that what you want to do when you grow up? Be a professional boxer?"

"No. The only reason I went onto the team at first was because my boyfriend who was just my friend at the time convinced me to tryout." Abby smiled at the memory. "Then I started to like it because it gave me a reason to hit people when I wanted to."

"Do you have any idea what you want to do then as a profession?"

"No. I haven't given much thought to it actually. I don't have any hobbies that I'm passionate about or good at, so I haven't actually found my match yet."

"Don't worry, you will. There's going to be that one time in your life when it dawns on you of what you actually want to do with your life."

Abby thought of Dent as a school councilor when he said this. He obviously took education as seriously as Rachel did. But then again Abby would think so considering where he's at.

"So how are you and your dad getting along?"

She was taken aback by the sudden question. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, and I don't mean to pry, but he did return just a year ago didn't he? How has the shock been since then?"

"It's been fine. Before though, I was shocked, happy, sad, and angry all at the same time. It was tough, but my dad and I worked it out."

"That's good. So how did you cope until then? Your mother told me that she forced you to live with him when he came back."

Abby hated how Rachel told him everything. It was as if she didn't have the voice herself to tell him, but then again this was the longest conversation they've had.

"Not well, I'd have to say," she answered. "I was still conflicted on my feelings toward him and being around him wasn't making anything better. So I ran off the night before I had to go live with him. A few muggers came when I had gotten lost and then he came."

"Who?"

Abby hesitated before answering him directly. "Batman."

"The Batman?" Dent raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Is there any other?"

He ignored the question. "Is that the only time you've met him?"

"No. I had a couple of other run-ins with him and that was it."

"Why did you keep running into him?"

"If you knew me, you wouldn't be asking that question," she added, almost sourly.

"And you haven't seen him since?"

"Nope, not since last year. But I'll be the first one to admit that those run-ins were helpful to me in reconciling with my dad. It seemed like once Batman came around everything started to change."

"And things are still changing. Gotham is on its way to becoming a better city. We just need to have faith in it."

"Dinner's ready!" Rachel's voice echoed through the kitchen.

Abby was the first to get up from her seat. "Coming!"

She gave a silent sigh of relief. _Finally!_

Rachel had everything set up on the table except for one crucial part.

Abby quirked an eyebrow. "Where's the food?"

Rachel gasped. "Oh I completely forgot about the spaghetti. Could you go get it for me please? It's in the oven."

"Sure."

"Thanks, Abs."

Abby made her way to the oven. As she did, she could distinctly hear Rachel and Dent whispering to each other. She rolled her eyes. Didn't all adults understand that if they talk about their children while the subject of the conversation was in the room it wasn't a secret? Abby took out the three full plates of spaghetti and put them on the counter.

"While you're at it, Abby could you please pour the tomato sauce on?" Rachel requested.

"Sure. Where's the tomato sauce?"

"The pot is on the stove."

Abby grabbed the plastic serving spoon from the counter above and took the pot of tomato sauce from the stove. Once she poured a considerable amount of sauce on each plate of spaghetti, she placed the pot back on the stove and rinsed the spoon. As she was putting the spoon back in its place, her phone began to vibrate in her pocket. Abby glanced at it.

It was a text from Aaron.

_Hey, how's it going? _It read.

Abby texted back: _Mom surprised me with Harvey Dent and two day old spaghetti for dinner. :/ No bueno._

His next reply came in a flash: _Ouch. Good luck with that. =P_

She smiled at the text and replied: _I'll try to survive. :) I'll talk to you later. _

As she raised her hand to put the plastic serving spoon back, her arm had knocked something over. Her eyes widened when she realized it was the Tabasco sauce with the cap wide open. Acting quickly, she put the spoon on the bottom shelf of the cabinet and capped the bottle immediately. Strangely enough, it didn't look like it had made any type of mess. Shrugging it off, she took all three plates to the table. She served the plates of spaghetti to Dent and Rachel before sitting down in her own seat with her plate of spaghetti.

Rachel began cutting her spaghetti. "So what were you guys talking about in the other room?"

Dent was the one to answer the question. "Nothing much. Though we were discussing future careers."

"Like what?"

"I think that's the same question that Abby has been asking herself."

Rachel looked to Abby. "Is there anything you'd like to do, Abby?"

Abby swallowed her forkful of spaghetti. "Not anything I've thought of. Do I really need to think of the future now? I'm only a sophomore."

"It's a good idea that you do," said Dent. "For college's sake of course."

"And don't think that I'm going to let you flunk out of college like your father did," Rachel sternly said.

"Technically he didn't flunk out," Abby pointed out. "He just disappeared and by the time he came back it was too late to finish school."

"Well you're not disappearing or flunking anywhere when it comes to your education."

"Have you ever thought about doing anything in law enforcement?" Harvey suggested.

Abby shook her head. "No, but my boyfriend, Aaron's dad is a cop."

"What's his name?"

"Liam West."

Dent smiled. "One of the few good ones."

"Yeah, he mentioned that you were in Internal Affairs for awhile there."

"Yep I remember. West was one of the few that actually had a pretty clean record. Most of the others were men and women that I had caught working for the mob."

"Maybe they're trying to redeem themselves. They're exactly bad people, you know."

Abby had met with some of Liam's coworkers on occasion and never thought of them as criminals. The leaders of the mob on the other hand, they were the real criminals.

"It doesn't matter. Their record is not clean and that should be carefully noted at the police department. Case closed." Dent stated firmly.

Abby didn't reply to Dent's accusation. Gotham hadn't been one for keeping records of police officers faults or any authority figure for that matter. Crane was the perfect example for that. She would never forget her mother's frustration towards the man for letting felons get away as mentally ill.

Dent's smile returned when Abby continued to remain silent. "I'll bet you anything that you'll do whatever makes you happy and that you'll be successful at it." He reached into his pocket and brought out a silver coin. "Heads: you'll have a good future with a successful job. Tails: you'll…probably be somewhere opposite of that."

"Harvey, is this really necessary?" said Rachel with annoyance in her eyes.

"Yes. I always use my father's lucky coin. It got me my first date with you and brought us that much farther in testifying Sal Maroni. I think it would be fair to show Abby how the coin works."

_It would be really fair if you didn't use that coin. _Abby wasn't the least superstitious, but according to those instances she didn't want to bet her future by chance. Dent flipped the coin into the air and caught it on the top of his hand.

He grinned. "See. Heads."

"Now that you've done your coin flip for my daughter, please eat your food now," Rachel nearly scolded.

It was then Abby realized that Dent had not touched his food. Apparently he was too distracted with the conversation they were having. Doing as Rachel told, Dent took a bite of his spaghetti.

Abby mindlessly twirled her fork around her plate. "So how was your guys' day?"

"Very stressful is one way to describe it," said Rachel. "With Lau gone we're trying to get him back here, but the Chinese government is not cooperating."

"Why would they not cooperate? If he was causing trouble here then he probably is causing trouble there as well."

"He's probably being discrete about it. Only someone who did their research right would realize that something was up."

Dent coughed before speaking. "We would have him if Gordon had let me in on what he was doing."

Abby raised an eyebrow. "You're working with Gordon?"

"Yes. He has access to the Batman who can help us clean up this city once and for all." He swallowed his next bite of spaghetti hard.

"What exactly are you planning to do with Batman?"

"I'm just working with him toward a common goal. As far as I know Batman will bring Lau to me, and your mother and I will get him to talk."

"You sound like you don't trust him."

"You sound like you do."

Abby stuffed her mouth with another fork full of spaghetti before she could say anything else. She didn't want to endanger Bruce's identity more than she already did. Dent must've suspected something when she talked about Batman. She tried to stay as vague as possible, but her tone was hard to control. Abby really did miss Batman. Yes, she saw him every day. But it wasn't Batman. It was Bruce. Sometimes she wished that she never knew of Batman's identity so that they could go back to the way things were before.

Abby was taken away from her thoughts when she heard Dent gulping down huge amounts of water.

Rachel gave him a wary look. "Harvey, are you okay?"

"I don't know," he said almost breathless. "What's in this sauce?"

"Crushed tomatoes. What else?"

"Whatever it is, it's very hot."

Hot? Since when were tomatoes hot? Abby tasted hers and became confused. It tasted like regular tomato sauce. _Is Dent hallucinating or something?_ She then thought back to when she was putting away the plastic serving spoon. Something spilled…but yet made no mess on the counter. Her heart nearly dropped to the ground. Dent's plate of spaghetti must've been right under the cabinet where the…_Tabasco_ sauce spilled! It was no wonder she didn't find any drops of it on the counter.

Dent got up from his seat, panting. "I'm going to get some water."

"I'd get some ice cream too if it's really heating up in mouth," Abby guiltily added.

Rachel's head snapped towards Abby. "What did you do?"

"Why do you think stuff like this is my fault?"

Rachel only narrowed her eyes.

Abby sighed. "It was an accident, I swear. I didn't notice the Tabasco sauce was open until it spilled."

"You spilled _Tabasco_ sauce on Harvey's food!" her mother hissed.

"Not on purpose!"

Dent interrupted Rachel before she could get another word out. "Rachel, do you know where that ice cream is that Abby suggested?"

"Top shelf in the freezer. I'll get you a spoon and a bowl."

Abby got up from her seat, taking her plate with her. "I'll go work on that homework now."

"Don't think this discussion isn't over young lady," Rachel whispered sternly to Abby.

Without one glance towards Dent, Abby put her plate in the sink and sped to her room.

Abby sat in her room later that night. She didn't know why, but she didn't feel like talking to anyone. She only wanted to think. Granted, Aaron did call her earlier and she explained to situation to him. He defiantly got a laugh out of that. She didn't know whether to be embarrassed or ashamed of the situation. It was an accident after all. But there was another feeling that was arising within her: pride. Abby didn't understand it. It wasn't planned nor did she want it to happen yet she was proud of what she did.

She looked down to her golden locket that rested on her chest. Her fingers rubbed against it, feeling the active gloss of the locket. Abby clearly remembered the night that it was given to her by her father. Bruce had given it to her as a seven year late birthday present on the night of his birthday party, or as Gotham knew it the night that Wayne Manor was burnt down, or better yet as Abby knew it the night that she discovered Bruce's Batman persona. She had worn it since that day to signify that Bruce Wayne was her true hero.

A knock came from her door. "Abby?"

It was Rachel. She sighed. _I might as well get it over with._

"Come in," Abby said.

Rachel emerged from the doorway with a weak smile. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"Forget about the formalities for a second and just ground me."

Her mother sat on the edge of Abby's bed. "I'm not going to ground you. I just wanted to talk to you."

"About what?" Abby raised a brow. "I accidently poured Tabasco in your boyfriend's spaghetti. Case closed."

"Not in my book it isn't. I know what you did was an accident and I admit I over reacted. But that's not what I want to talk about. You've been pretty calm this year comparing to last year, but when the topic of Harvey comes up you tend to avoid it. Why?"

Abby bit her lip. She didn't know the answer herself.

"Do you like Harvey? Is there something that bothers you about him?" Rachel pressed.

She ran a hand through her thick brown hair. "It's not that I don't like him…he's just….he's just…not Dad."

Catching her mother's confused look, Abby continued. "De—Harvey is still a complete stranger to me. I trust that you know him and I trust him not to hurt you, but I still don't know him. Even when I was talking to him tonight, I felt uncomfortable. But with Dad, there are no secrets between us. What I'm trying to tell you is that I just got my dad back, I don't need another one right now."

Rachel nodded. "I understand what you're saying, but there's nothing I can do about your comfort zone around Harvey."

"I'm not saying to stop dating Harvey, if that's where you think I'm getting at. I just need some time before I can fully accept that Harvey's going to be an active part of your life."

"If that's what you want, I'll do that. But I do not make any promises for Harvey. He's was actually looking forward to tonight. He really wanted to meet you."

Abby was taken aback by the statement. "Why?"

"I've mentioned you plenty of times that he wants to know you. I think it's sweet although I'm surprised that he didn't run for the hills when I mentioned that I had a daughter."

She smiled at the thought. Dent wouldn't have been the first to do that.

Her mind suddenly went somewhere else when she took one quick look at her locket. "Hey, Mom can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Are you in love with Dad?"

Rachel didn't answer right away. The question seemed to have surprised her. "Why would you ask that?"

"It's just that last year when Dad came back, you seemed happier. Then when Dad told you about Batman it's like you completely shut him out. What's the deal?"

"I'll admit I was very happy that your father had returned. But when I realized that he was Batman, I couldn't handle his double persona."

"That still doesn't answer my question."

"Why do you want to know anyway?" Rachel nearly demanded.

"I was curious and to be truthful…I want a real family. You know the traditional type of family that lives under one roof. I keep hoping that's going to happen, but Harvey seems to be in the way of it all."

Finally, Abby had said it. It was as if her thoughts flowed right out of her mouth.

Rachel's only reaction to the confession was a heavy sigh. "I had a feeling you were going to say that. I'm sorry, but that's probably not going to happen. You need to understand that life changes and we need to go along with it. I couldn't wait for your father forever, so I moved on. Harvey's going to be a good kind of change, I promise you that."

"Sure," Abby grumbled.

"I love you. Nothing will change that. Your father on the other hand, is something I can't handle anymore. I love him for being a wonderful father to you, but other than that I can't handle the confusion. Do you understand?"

Abby had no choice but to nod. Her mother was happy with Dent and that was it. There was still no denial though that Bruce was in love with Rachel. However Rachel didn't deny that she was in love with him.

Rachel lightly brushed a lock of Abby's hair behind Abby's ear. "It's getting late. You should get to bed."

"Is Harvey still here?"

"No. He went home. After having a scoop of the ice cream his tongue started to feel a lot better."

"That's good," she replied. She wasn't sure if she meant it or not.

"According to what your father said, he'll be back by tomorrow evening. So I'll drop you off at the penthouse at five."

"Cool. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Abby's feelings were once again mixed. She was hurt that Rachel denied Abby's wish and annoyed that Dent was getting in the middle of it. One thing was for sure, it was hilarious the way Harvey Dent reacted to a little bit of hot sauce compared to the way he acted around the mob. Abby smiled at the thought.

* * *

Thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter mainly because this was Abby's first real encounter with Harvey. It was interesting the way that Abby handled things. Anyway I was planning on making a fan page for these stories on Facebook. I've seen a couple of fanfics do it and I thought I'd give it a shot. But I need to know who's going to join. There's a poll on my profile so if you can, please use the poll so I can see how many people are on board with this. I'll only put my Batman Begins/Dark Knight fanfics on it. This other one I'm planning to write later on will have it's separate page. It'll be a good way to stay updated in case I have any problems updating and faster way to get feedback.

~Emyrox567


	8. Deception

Deception

Abby woke with an abrupt start that morning. Her alarm wouldn't shut off even after constantly pushing the OFF button so she had to resort to pulling the plug. Not able to go back to sleep, Abby decided to head over to the kitchen. The house was surprisingly active that morning. Abby could hear the morning news coming from the TV, Rachel's blow dryer, and the dishwasher running. She didn't know why Rachel would be up at this hour on Saturday since she didn't have work, but soon realized that she would find out anyway.

She took out a slice of bread from the refrigerator and placed it into the toaster.

"Good morning, Abby."

Abby yawned. "Good morning."

Her eyes suddenly went wide. The voice didn't belong to Rachel, but Dent himself.

She spun around to face him. Dent was standing next to the kitchen table with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.

"Mr. Dent, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I came to give your mom a ride to work this morning. So how are you?"

"Tired. What time is it?"

"About nine."

_Ding!_ Abby went to retrieve her toast from the toaster. "Don't you guys have off today?"

"Not if something important like this comes up."

Rachel entered the kitchen, giving Dent a kiss on the cheek. "Good morning, you two."

"What's so important that you have to go to work on a Saturday?" Abby questioned.

Dent smiled proudly. "Lau was delivered to Gordon this morning."

"How? I thought he was all the way in Hong Kong."

"Not anymore. Now he's in holding cell at the police station where we'll interrogate him."

"Well have fun with that. I'll probably just laze around here since Aaron is with his family helping his mom get to the airport."

Abby took her slices of toast and placed them on a plate.

"Why don't you come with us?"

She froze on the spot. "What?"

"You said you had nothing to do this morning and I thought maybe you should start looking for that future career now."

"In law?"

"Why not?" Dent shrugged. "You may not want to do it in the end, but it's a start."

"I don't know. I've literally grown up around law. I can't imagine doing it as a career."

"You should give it a try, Abby," Rachel didn't help the situation anymore. "It's worth a shot."

Abby opened her mouth to say something, but Dent interrupted her. "Go ahead and get ready now. We'll wait for you."

"I don't want to keep Lau waiting though," she said dumbly.

"Lau's the one who ran away to Hong Kong. I'm pretty sure him and his attorney can wait."

Realizing how weak the argument was, Abby grabbed her plate of toast and went back to her room.

She couldn't understand why Dent was so persistent in taking her to Lau's interrogation. It was obviously beyond future careers. Abby began to wonder if Rachel had told Dent of her the views of him or if he figured it out on his own. Either way she sat in the back of Dent's car as they drove to the police station. She remained silent while Rachel and Dent spoke about what they were going to question Lau on. Much to her relief, her phone vibrated.

She answered it not looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

"OK, so on the subject of Sasha," said an all too familiar voice.

"Give it up, T.J.," Abby moaned.

"C'mon, we'll never know if it never happens. I'm pretty sure Aaron did the same thing when he was trying to ask you out."

"I'm positive he didn't say anything to anyone about his crush on me. Besides he didn't have to. Everyone, but me could tell."

"All right, I'll give you that one, but that's a different scenario. Yours is the classic best friends' story and mine is the new kid falling for a girl at his school."

"Who happens to be my best friend and is obviously seeing someone," stated Abby.

"Trust me once I'm around here long enough, you will learn that those factors have never affected me."

She rolled her eyes. "Can we please talk about something else other than your infatuation with Sasha?"

T.J. let out a heavy sigh. "Fine…So have you tested that tracker I gave you on Monday yet?"

"No. I haven't had time. Who would I want to track anyway?"

"I don't know, maybe a couple of criminals or something?"

She replied sarcastically, "Sure, do you know any?"

"No, it was just an idea that popped into my head. I haven't really tested out yet either to be truthful. But hey, who's with you now?"

"My mom and her boyfriend."

His tone suddenly perked. "See if it works now. Get a strand of hair or a finger print for the tracker to scan."

"Please, T.J., it's like ten in the morning now. I really don't feel like doing any work."

"I'll keep talking about Sasha if you don't," he sang.

Abby began to dig through her bag for the tracker at that. "Hang on."

She took out the tracker, holding it in her hand. Soon after it turned on she went to the menu and pressed the option: ENTER COORDINATES.

Abby held her phone's earpiece to her shoulder as she spoke to Rachel and Dent. "I know this is gonna sound strange, but can I borrow your guys' DNA?"

Rachel turned to her with a curious look. "Why in the world would you be asking that?"

"My friend gave me this tracking device that he made for me and he wants me to try it out now. You don't have to do anything drastic. Just give me strand of hair or press your finger on the screen."

"Which friend is this?"

"T.J., he's Lucius Fox's grandson."

"I see," Rachel nodded. "I don't see how it could hurt so why not?"

"I'll try it too while you're at it," Dent added.

Rachel was the first to scan her finger print in. A green light went up and down the black screen until the green light filled the screen. Abby filled in the information in the device for her mother and handed it to Dent. She did the same procedure, putting the earpiece of her cell phone back on.

"OK, T.J. I got their DNA. Happy?" said Abby.

"I'll be happier if you actually test it."

"I'll be happier if you actually put this to rest, but that's not going to happen now is it?"

"Could you _please_ test it?" he groaned like a child.

"Fine, but then I have to go."

Abby pressed the TRACK button. Two moving red dots with Rachel and Dent's names appeared on the map. She looked on the street on the map and looked on the current street they were driving on. She was amazed. It was exactly on target.

"It works," she said almost breathless.

"Awesome. It was so worth hacking into the satellite system."

"For sure. Now I gotta go. We're getting close to the police station and I don't think phones are allowed inside the interrogation room."

"What happened? Did you get arrested or something?" his voice was once again pounding in excitement.

"No. My mom and her boyfriend are interrogating Lau and they just invited me along."

"Well that's no fun."

"Tell me about it. I gotta go now, see you later."

"See ya."

Abby hung up her phone and sighed. As foolish as the conversation was it got her mind off of her current situation. But at the same time she was still amazed of the device that T.J. gave her. She could track anyone she wanted to at anytime. Abby smiled thoughtfully to herself. _Maybe I can use to avoid Dent._

They entered the police station or as it were most commonly known, the Gotham Major Crimes Unit (MCU for short). Many police officers stared as they passed through the station. She received a few small smiles from the police officers that she had met through Liam, but other than that it was in complete silence. Apparently there was some tension between Law Enforcement and the District Attorney office. Liam's frustration about Dent and Dent's view on the police force proved that to be true.

The silence was soon broken as soon as they entered a dark room with a clear window.

Jim Gordon stood outside of the glass window, turning to them. "He's inside."

"I'll go in and question him," Rachel said immediately. "You stay out here with Gordon and Abby."

Gordon widened his eyes in surprise. "Abby, what are you doing here?"

"Looking for career opportunities apparently," she answered him bluntly.

Abby had not seen Gordon for a good few months. The last time she saw him was at a barbeque for Gotham's police force, but she had not spoken to him. The last time she had _spoken_ to him was last year when Crane and Ra's al Ghul had put their rein on terror on Gotham. From what she had learned from Liam, Gordon had been promoted to lieutenant.

"Are you planning to become a lawyer sometime in the future?" he asked casually.

"I'm not sure…"

"She's just looking at the possible careers that are out there," Dent finished for her.

Gordon's voice went from casual to serious when he faced Dent. "I see, well I think we'd better get started. We don't want Lau to give away anything while we're gone."

All of them watched as Rachel questioned Lau with his attorney by his side. So far he had not given away anything important. Abby could see that Lau was lying. He kept holding that smirk with every question he answered. She was beginning to become frustrated with him herself. The sad part was that Batman had to kidnap him in order for him to willfully answer Rachel's questions.

"Look, give us the money and we'll talk about making a deal," Rachel pressed the case further.

"_Money_ is the only reason I'm still alive," Lau slyly replied.

"You mean when they find out that you've helped us they're going to kill you?"

"Are you _threatening _my client?" Lau's attorney glared at Rachel.

Rachel shook her head and sat herself down across from Lau. "No, I'm just assuming your client's cooperation with this investigation. As will everyone." She stared across the table waiting for Lau to answer.

He didn't say a word.

She sighed as she got up from her seat. "OK, enjoy your time in County, Mr. Lau."

Rachel had not made it across the room when Lau said, "Wait."

Rachel spun around to face Lau.

"I won't give you the money," he said. "But I will give you my clients. All of them."

"You were a glorified accountant. What could you possibly have on all of them that we could charge?"

"I'm good with calculation—I handled all of their investments. One big pot."

Dent hit the buzzer bringing Abby's attention back to Dent and Gordon.

"RICO," Dent to said to Gordon.

"A what?" Abby raised an eyebrow.

"If all their money was _pooled_ we can charge all of them as one criminal conspiracy," he briefly explained.

"Charge them with what?" Gordon asked.

"In a RICO case if we can charge any of the conspirators with a felony—"

Rachel had entered just in time to finish Dent's sentence. "—We can charge all of them with it."

She went back into the interrogation room with excitement in her eyes. Abby could see the challenge that Rachel was ready to conquer. Abby had to admit that she was excited about it too since Lau was stubborn to answer the rest of the questions.

"Mr. Lau," Rachel approached him. "What kind of details do you have about this communal fund? Ledgers, note…?"

Lau smiled. "Immunity, protection, and a chartered plane back to Hong Kong."

"After you testify in open court. And I'm just curious with all of your clients locked up, what's gonna happen with the money?"

"Like I said—I'm good with calculation."

"He can't go to County," said Gordon. "I'll keep him here in the holding cells."

Abby looked over to Gordon and Dent.

Dent did not seem pleased with the suggestion. "What is this Gordon, your fortress?"

"You trust him over at County?"

"I don't trust him here," he rebutted.

Gordon ignored him. "Lau stays."

Dent didn't say anything else to that. It seemed as though Dent didn't trust anyone that was trying to take down the mob as much as he was (minus Rachel).

Much to Abby's relief, Rachel and Dent wrapped up the interrogation. As interesting as it was she couldn't help but find it a tad bit boring. There was nothing she could do except stand there and watch the show. Now Rachel was driving Abby back to the penthouse in Dent's car. Rachel would soon go back to the station to help the collect the names that Lau was giving to Gordon and Dent at the moment.

Rachel pulled into the parking lot in front of the elevator. "I would walk you in, but I gotta get back."

"It's okay. You never usually walk in with me anyway." Abby tried to hold in the sour tone in her voice, but she didn't know if she was successful or not.

"That's because I always know that you'll get inside okay."

"That's not what I particularly meant but I guess that works too."

Rachel shot her a puzzled look. "What did you mean then?"

Abby began to open the car door. "Never mind. It wasn't anything important anyway."

"Tell me. You know you can tell me anything, right?"

She looked at her mother's patient eyes. Abby contemplated on whether or not to tell what was on her mind now. The talk they had the night before had crushed some spirits in her. Despite the fear of being shut down again, Abby decided to continue.

"You avoid him, Mom," she said. "You told me last night that you got tired of waiting for Dad, but the truth is that you haven't even decided."

"Decided what?"

"Don't ask a question that you already know the answer to. You know what I'm talking about."

"I know that Harvey isn't your father, but that's no reason to hate him," Rachel's voice rose.

"I don't hate him. I'm just saying, whatever is going on between you and Dad is really annoying me. I mean Dad had to stalk you on your date last week to have a full conversation with you. You're avoiding him."

"Let's not talk about this anymore, Abs," she quietly muttered. "Just leave it as it is now."

Abby opened the car door and stormed out. "Fine, but that doesn't change anything."

She slammed the car door behind her before heading to the elevator. Abby waited until she had gotten into the elevator to shed tears. Getting in a fight with her mother was not one of her favorite things to do in her day. They didn't even fight as much anymore. They had fights about simple things like grades or chores, but this one was serious. Abby had never argued about Dent up until now. For some reason she had chosen to take action now. Thankfully no one else entered the elevator to see her cry.

When the elevator doors opened, she wiped her tears away with her jacket. The penthouse was silent when she had entered. Nothing stirred in the enormous apartment. _They must not be home yet, _she pondered to herself. It was three in the afternoon. Two hours before Rachel was supposed to drop her off.

"Abby?"

She jumped at the sound of Bruce's voice. It didn't matter how long she had lived with the man, Abby would still be startled by her father's quiet footsteps.

Abby turned to Bruce with a weak smile. "Hey, Dad. How was Hong Kong?"

"Very eventful." He looked at her curiously. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Your eyes are red and they look watery. Have you been crying?"

Abby rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket once more. "No…I got something in my eyes earlier and it's been bothering me ever since."

"Are you sure about that?"

He gave her long hard look. Bruce was waiting for her to tell the truth. Abby knew it. There was no use in lying to Bruce. He would always know whether someone was telling the truth or not.

"Just don't go anywhere for awhile okay?" said Abby. "I don't think I can handle another meeting Dent alone again."

Before Abby knew that Bruce was by her side, he had pulled her into an embrace.

"Did he hurt you?" was his automatic response.

"No. It's bigger than Dent and I'd rather not talk about it right now."

"Feel free to anytime. I'll be ready to listen."

"Well I've got some good news for you," she said, changing the subject. "Lau's telling the police who was involved in his communal fund."

"That is good news and the question I have for you is how you knew that."

"Mom and Dent dragged me to the interrogation. It was one of the most boring things I've had to do."

"Why'd they drag you there?"

"Dent was being weird and decided to start me on my path of finding my future career."

Bruce raised his eyebrow at the statement. "Already? You're only fifteen."

"I know. I think he's trying to get on my good side." Abby smiled at the thought. "But it's obviously not working."

"Don't forget that his fundraiser is tomorrow night. You'll have to talk to him again."

"At least this time I won't be alone. I'll have you, Aaron, Heather, Sasha and T.J. by my side."

Bruce tightened his grip. "You got that right."

Abby stared at her bedroom ceiling later that night. She had finished most of her homework that her teachers had given her for the week off, but now she had nothing else to do. It was still a mystery of what she was going to do with a week of no school. Sasha was going that journalism camp which left Aaron, Heather and Abby alone with T.J. to fantasize about her. Abby would be sure to tell T.J. not to say a word about it while the week went on. Her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket. She took the phone out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID.

She smiled before answering. "Hey, Aaron."

Aaron didn't waste his time with any greeting this time. "Did you hear what happened today?"

"I guess not since I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Almost the entire mob was arrested today," his voice paced. "That's more than what the police department arrests in a year."

"Wow…when they hear names they don't mess around."

"You knew that somebody sold the mob out?"

Even though Aaron couldn't see her, she nodded her head. "Yep. I saw the interrogation myself."

"Oh, that's right. My dad saw you walk in with your mom and Harvey Dent today. What was that about? I would think that they would try to keep it quiet."

"Dent was trying to get on my good side and take me to work. That failed obviously. It was one of the most boring things I've ever had to endure. I all did was stand there while my mom, Dent and Gordon were strategizing."

"At least you didn't have to do anything today. I had to help my mom get to the airport at five in the morning and wait in traffic for about a good two hours. Then after we got her to the airport we had to go to the UPS store to ship off her paintings. You have no idea how much bubble wrap Jared, Allie and I had to use to protect that stuff. That was pretty much our day in a whole."

Abby moaned. "Aaron, you have no idea how much I would rather wrap bubble wrap around precious art than spend a day at the MCU."

"But you got to witness a very important event."

"Fine the next time Dent invites me to see another interrogation; I'll bring you along with me."

"That's all I ask."

Abby laughed at the remark. Like his father, he seemed to take in interest in criminology. Now that she thought about it, bringing Aaron along would've lessened the boredom.

"That's the way it should have been done a long time ago," Aaron said suddenly.

"Hm? Excuse me, I didn't catch that."

"They should have done this a long time ago. Bring in the guy who happens to know more than he should and make him give the names. But no, we had to wait for a bat to scope out the place before we could take action."

"Well they wouldn't have known the guy was a part of the mob if Batman didn't do his research," Abby argued.

"That's beside the point. They're allowing a man to break the rules as he pleases and yet they have an arrest warrant against him."

"Aaron, maybe if he did it the right way no one would have listened to him. They would have thought of him to be some other guy off the street."

"Yeah, but he doesn't have to cause millions of dollars of damage and hurt people to get to the bottom of things. I can guarantee you that my dad doesn't do that when he's out in the field."

Her face turned red. "Batman doesn't follow with the crowd. He finds out what he needs to with his own resources. He may have no rules but he's made a lot more improvements than Gotham has in years."

"Okay, calm down. I'm just saying Batman can make some unnecessary choices."

"I'm sorry I blew up like that," she said. "The Batman thing is kind of a touchy subject for me."

"We'll talk about something else then."

"OK then, are you still coming to the fundraiser tomorrow night?"

"Sure am. So is Sasha too by the way. She may have to leave early to get some sleep for the plane ride to Metropolis in the morning."

"That's fine. I don't want to face Dent alone again. It was already awkward enough last night."

Abby began to hear muffled voices from the other side of the line.

"Sorry, I gotta go, Abs," said Aaron. "Apparently I was supposed to clean the dishes tonight."

"I cleaned them last night!" Allie shouted from Aaron's side of the line.

"Things are kind of out of whack with my mom gone for the next couple weeks. Jared is basically in charge of the house for most of the day. You can imagine what that's like."

"Unfortunately I can," Abby muttered. "I'll let you go and I'll see you tomorrow night."

"See you then."

Abby bit her lip as she hung up her phone. Aaron had never really placed his own opinions about Batman until now. She never knew that he despised Batman so much. Abby felt the need to defend Batman for the main reason that he was her father. Of course, she couldn't say that to Aaron. She had to lie to him in order to protect herself and Aaron as well. She figured as long as she didn't bring up Batman as often they wouldn't have to argue about it or lie about the matter.

She glanced up at the glowing bat signal in the sky through her glass balcony doors. Batman may have not followed the rules, but that's what made him Batman. That was probably why Abby was somewhat attracted to him the year before. But this time when she looked into the dark sky, an aching feeling came into her gut. She didn't know what it was. It seemed to be a mixture of fear and adrenaline. Why these feelings came to her she didn't know. Whatever it was she didn't like it. Rubbing her eyes, she decided to go to sleep.

As Abby curled into her bed, the only thought that ran through her mind was the boredom that she would have to face at Harvey Dent's fundraiser the next night.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Now I'm off to modify one of my old shoes so that I can walk on eggs without breaking them (a physics project that I have to do). Any suggestions on what I should use? Next chapter should be up by next week or so. It's done, but I want to edit it a little more.

~Emyrox567


	9. Let the Games Begin

Let the Games Begin

"Ouch! What are trying to do murder me or brush my hair?"

Heather looked apologetically at Abby. "Sorry. You're hair is not the easiest to brush, you know."

Abby rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I know, but you could at least ease up on the brush."

"Or better yet, Heather why don't you let Abby do her own hair?" said Sasha.

Heather shook her head. "No, I let her get away in Homecoming and her dad's birthday party last year. Trust me, Abs, you're hair could've done better. You're just lucky guys like Aaron don't pay attention to that stuff."

"Neither does anybody else," Abby mumbled.

"You'll think differently when I'm done with you."

"That's if I don't go bald first."

Heather and Sasha had been in her room since twelve in the afternoon getting ready for Dent's fundraiser. Everything since then had been about hair, makeup, and the dresses they were going to wear. Both Sasha and Heather spent hours decided on which of the dresses they had brought over to the penthouse that they were going to wear. Abby (who had already picked out her dress) had to help them decide to quicken the process. After they had come down to their final decision, they began to look through magazines for possible hair styles. All Abby wanted to do was put her hair in a bun, but Heather wouldn't have any of it. Now here she was being Heather's doll.

"Are you done yet?" Abby asked impatiently.

Heather tugged on her thick hair once more. "I will be when you stop asking that."

"Ah! This is worse than standing through a whole interrogation."

"At least you got to see history being made in Gotham," said Sasha.

"Yeah some Chinese guy giving up information because he's a coward, such history."

Sasha gasped at Abby's sarcasm. "Haven't you heard what that lead to?"

"A bunch of arrests?"

"Make that five hundred and forty-nine arrests and convictions!"

Abby's stomach nearly landed on the ground. "What?"

"Didn't you hear? Harvey Dent was able to put more than three quarters of the mob behind bars this morning."

"No way."

"Way." Heather put the comb on Abby's dresser and grabbed the curling iron. "That's more than what Batman's put in."

It was. Dent was able to wipe out almost all of the city's criminals without causing any damage or breaking any rules. All Batman had to do was bring Lau back over to Gotham.

Sasha sighed. "Let's just hope he doesn't mess this up. I've seen more than enough people do that."

"He won't," Abby stated. "Dent's clean. He wants to save Gotham just as much as we do."

"I'm surprised you didn't add that he's dating your mom, so he must be good."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm not stupid, Abby. Neither is anybody else. We all know that you don't like Harvey for the prime reason that he's dating your mom."

"Is is that obvious?" she moaned.

"You call the guy by his last name, you literally flee when you have to meet him face to face and I see that uncomfortable look you get when you see your mom and him together."

Abby bit her lip. "So what if I do all of those things? What exactly does that prove besides me not liking him?"

"I guess I'm just telling you to watch out because you're never going to get what you want in this case."

She had already had a similar conversation with Rachel, but it got right down to the point with Sasha. With her parents divorced and her mother now pregnant with her stepfather's child, Sasha seemed to know what kind of dilemma Abby was going through. But Sasha's parents didn't love each other anymore. Bruce and Rachel did. They were just too stubborn to admit it.

"And viola!" Heather smiled with pride at her work.

Abby looked in the mirror. For once her brown hair did not frizz. It flowed down to her shoulder, tied into a low pony tail with a velvet hair tie. Her bangs were curled as was parts of her pony tail. She thanked Heather for her hard work and helped her friends with their hair as well. It wasn't long after that they went to put on their dresses.

Abby wore a simple dark blue spaghetti strap dress that went to her mid-thighs and had a thick silver line wrapped around her waist. Heather's peach colored dress went down to her knees and moved freely through the air as she walked. Sasha's dress a black thick strapped dress that was stiff at her upper body and then flowed freely at her lower body. Although she was back on her feet again, she still had to wear a brace around her ankle which disabled her from wearing any heels like Abby and Heather. Abby looked at the time once they finished putting on their dresses.

It was six O'clock. She grabbed the remote and switched the channel to GCN.

"Hey," said Heather bothered by the channel change. "Gossip Girl was on."

Abby was in no way affected. "Well Chuck and Blair can wait. I need to watch GCN."

"Fine trade off a great drama show for some reports on a couple robberies…"

"It's not that bad, Heather. I promise you I'll change it once all of the good stories are out of the way."

Heather didn't answer this time. She only pointed her finger to the screen. Abby turned to the TV screen, her eyes wide. It was footage of Batman hanging down from a cord with the words: BATMAN DEAD? She knew well that he couldn't be her father. This Batman had a bigger built than her father did. But as she looked closer, she saw white painted covered his face with a red Glasgow smile.

The scene then switched to Mike Engel. "Police released footage found concealed on the body. Sensitive viewers beware: the image is disturbing."

Abby sat down on her bed for this. The bad feeling in her gut came back again. The scene cut to one of Batman's Copybats tied to a chair and bruised heavily on his face.

The camera shook as the voice spoke. "Tell them your name."

"Brian…Douglas," the man struggled to say.

The man behind the camera gave a small giggle. "Are you the real Batman?"

"No…"

"No," he laughed even louder. "No! Then why do you dress up like him?" A gloved hand took the mask off of Brian and gleefully waved it in front of the camera. "Woo-Hu-Hoo!"

"He's a symbol…that we don't have to be afraid of scum like you."

The gloved hand cupped the side of his face. "Yeah…you do, Brian. You _really do._" The hand shook Brian's head forcefully. "Huh? _Yeah!_"

Brian whimpered.

"Oh, sh-sh," the man's voice soothed. "So you think Batman's made Gotham a better place? Hm? Look at me."

Brian kept his eyes to the ground.

"LOOK AT ME!" the voice growled.

Abby jumped at the sudden change in volume. She couldn't imagine what this guy was after by doing this.

Brian reluctantly glared at the camera. The camera suddenly swooshed away from Brian. If wasn't the voice that scared her, it was definitely the face of the man behind the camera. Her heart pounded and feet wanted to run, but they were too scared to. A man in chalk white makeup with red smeared paint that stretched from his lips to his cheeks, grinned at the camera with his yellow teeth. His curly hair was dyed a light green and his eyes were covered in black paint. With the close up that the man gave, Abby could see the scars under the makeup that made a permanent smile.

"You see this is how cra_zy_ Batman's made Gotham," he said. "If you want _order _in Gotham, Batman must take off his mask and turn himself in. Oh, every day he doesn't, people will die. Starting tonight. I'm a man of my word."

Suddenly the man began to throw fits of hysterical laughter. A chill ran up Abby's spine as he laughed. The last thing heard before the scene was cut was Brian's terrified screams. She turned off the TV at the moment.

Abby took in heavy breaths.

There was no way this was happening. Batman wasn't being forced to reveal his identity to the world. A man dressed as a clown wasn't threatening lives. But there was no way to prove those statements to be true. Abby had remembered seeing that exact clown driving the Allie's school bus the week before. Bruce said that the man that called himself the Joker was no threat. For once, he was actually wrong. She didn't know what to think of the situation. Her father could be gone and she wouldn't have the chance to say goodbye to him.

She knew Bruce though. He would think this through before doing anything else. But the longer he waited, the more lives were lost. Who the Joker was going to kill first she didn't know. Abby only knew that Gotham's population would be slightly lower by next morning.

A hand rested on her shoulder causing her to gasp.

Abby looked up with fear in her eyes and saw that it was only Sasha.

"Are you okay, Abs?" she asked warily. "You don't look so good."

Abby smiled weakly. "I'm fine. Just a little startled."

"Guess that fear of clowns hasn't gone away."

"Guess not…"

Silence plagued the room. Abby couldn't find anything else to say that would cover up for her small panic attack.

Heather was the first the break silence. "Well, I don't know about you, but I think we should get started on makeup. I can guarantee you that we'll do a better job than that guy on TV. I mean he was a walking Lady Gaga disaster."

Abby and Sasha shared a laugh at Heather's remark. She didn't want to put makeup on, but if it got her attention off of what she had just witnessed, Abby was game.

The whole living room floor was cleared in time for the party guests to arrive. Crowds of people had already scattered across the first floor of the penthouse. Abby could bet that she didn't even know ten of the people there. She, Sasha, and Heather searched around the room for Aaron and T.J. to arrive. They weren't late, but they were bound to get lost in the crowd of strangers. People waved and smiled at Abby as she passed by. Abby gave her best grin and waved back.

"_How_ does your dad know this many people?" Sasha asked incredulously.

"They run in the same circle I guess," was Abby's only answer to the question.

Her vision suddenly went black as she felt warm hands cover her eyes. "Guess who? I've got an annoying brother, a horrible singing voice and an amazing girlfriend."

A playful smirk climbed onto her lips. "Hm…I'm stumped."

"C'mon, this should be easy. I go to Gotham High with you, we share the hate for stuck up girls, and we always mock chick flicks when we're alone."

"Well if isn't Aaron West."

Abby spun around to face Aaron. "So do I get a prize?"

"Yeah."

Aaron leaned in and crashed his lips onto hers. She wanted to deepen the kiss, but a cough interrupted them.

T.J. looked at them annoyed. "You say I rub in my love life."

"And what love life would that be?" Abby shot back.

"Touché, but I'm working at it."

"You just keep telling yourself that."

He smiled smugly. "I will."

"Hello, Abby."

She turned to see Dent walking up to them without Rachel by his side. Figures, she must've left him hanging.

Abby forced a smile. "Hi, Mr. Dent."

"Please, that's my father. Call me Harvey."

"OK…Harvey."

"I see you invited some friends over."

"Oh yeah, right." Abby gestured towards Aaron. "This is my boyfriend, Aaron and my friends, Sasha, Heather and T.J."

Dent shook hands with each of them. When he finished he looked to Aaron. "Hey, you're Officer Liam West's boy, right?"

Aaron nodded his head. "Yes, sir."

"How's he been?"

"He's been good. My mom just left for Chicago for a couple weeks so he's trying to get home as early as he can to help us around the house. He's even taking a double shift tonight so that he can get home early tomorrow."

"That's good. At least he's giving the effort."

"So where's my mom?" asked Abby.

Dent gave a nervous laugh. "You tell me. She left me to fend for myself."

Dent obviously didn't like the attention that he was about to get from the rich side of town. Abby still found it amusing how he would spit in the face of death and then begin to cringe around the simplest things. An idea then came into her mind.

"Well, we're going to find some food," she told him. "Have fun receiving donations."

Abby led Aaron and her friends away from Dent before he could say anything to stop them.

"Are you really that hungry?" Unlike Dent, Aaron didn't buy the lie at all.

"No. Not yet anyway. I just wanted to see how he handled these people alone," she explained.

Before anyone could respond to Abby's lie, a roar from a landing helicopter came from the helipad outside. From the distance, Abby could see Bruce come out with three women on hand. Her father really got carried away sometimes when he played Prince of Gotham.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he said as he entered the room. "I'm glad to see that you all got started without me. Now, where is Harvey Dent? The man of the hour." Bruce spotted Dent and his eyes began to move around the crowd. "Where is Rachel Dawes? She is my oldest friend." Bruce caught sight of Rachel and gestured for her. "Come here."

Rachel stepped a few feet from the crowd.

"When Rachel first told me that she was dating Harvey Dent," Bruce continued. "I had one thing to say: 'The guy from those God-awful campaign commercials?' _'I Believe in Harvey Dent'. _Yeah, nice slogan, Harvey. It got Rachel's attention. Then I started to pay attention to Harvey and all that he's been doing as our new DA and you know what, I believe in Harvey Dent. I believe that under his watch, Gotham can feel a bit safer. A little more optimistic. Look at this face. This is the face of Gotham's bright future. To Harvey Dent, let's hear it for him."

Everyone clapped in appreciation for Dent. Bruce wasn't giving that speech as Bruce Wayne. He was giving it as Batman. Did he not see the news that evening? Was he really just going to hand over the Batman pedestal over to Dent? Abby needed to talk to him. She needed to talk to someone who knew the Batman secret.

"Wow, I didn't know your dad was so passionate about this city's safety," Heather mused.

Abby mumbled. "You have no idea."

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to find something I can actually drink in this place."

"I'm right with you," said Sasha.

"You guys go ahead," said Abby. "I'm gonna go talk to my dad really quick."

"OK," Aaron replied. "We'll probably be by the kitchen or something."

"Cool, I'll see you around."

Abby pushed her way through the crowd to catch up with her father. She had seen him go out to the balcony with Rachel following behind. This was a serious issue that Abby had to speak to him about. If she could tell Aaron, she would, but opposing forces were stopping her from doing so. As she came closer to the balcony, she saw Dent walking out with Rachel. Abby took this as her opportunity to speak to Bruce alone.

The cold wind brushed on her skin as she went outside. Bruce was standing alone, looking at Gotham.

"Hey," she said.

Bruce looked back to her. "Hey. Having fun?"

She approached the railing of the balcony. "I wish, but what can I do?"

"It's benefiting Harvey, that's all that matters now."

Abby nodded in agreement. "That is the purpose. Look, Dad I need to talk to you about that speech you made about Dent."

"I wasn't lying, Abby. I meant every word of it."

"That's exactly what I want to talk about. Are really just dumping Gotham onto Dent?"

"You and I both know that Harvey Dent is more than capable of taking care of Gotham."

"I know that, but it just doesn't feel right. Especially after I saw tonight's news."

Bruce sighed. "So you did see it."

"I'm not blind, Dad. I can see when your life is being threatened. Ra's was one thing, but this guy is different. He's involving other people. And you just giving the Batman pedestal to Dent seems like you're quitting."

"Batman was never a permanent deal. I thought you could at least figure that out by now. As for the Joker, I'm trying to get to the bottom of that."

Abby looked over the balcony facing the low ground. "Yeah, it sure looks like you are."

"I had to come here tonight. If I want to keep my image of Bruce Wayne up, I need to attend the fundraisers I throw."

"I get that, but I'm worried. I'm worried about what's going to happen next, about Gotham, about my family and friends…and especially you. You're the one putting it on the line for yourself against the mob."

Bruce's warm hand rested on cold shoulder. "You don't need to worry about me. You've got a life of your to worry about. Besides this is probably the mob's doing since I brought the man who ratted them out."

Abby looked at him with wary eyes. "Even if it wasn't, I'd still be worried. People can die in this and I don't even think Batman can handle that. He isn't completely invincible, you know." She let a tear slip as she looked back down at the ground.

Bruce didn't have anything to say to that. He only kept his hand on her shoulder. She observed the activity below to pass the silence. There were still many cars active in the streets. All of them moving in lines parallel to each other. Abby could see the people walking past the building as well. She was about to take her eyes away from the sight when she saw a disruption in the streets. A white van swerved through the streets pulling up past the curb. She squinted her eyes even more to try to get a better look of the people getting out of the van. It was difficult to see their faces, but they seemed to be in a hurry to get inside.

Wait, _why_ where they trying to get inside the building?

Abby looked back up to Bruce. "Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"There was van that pulled up down there and people rushing inside to get into the building."

"Could you see anything specific about these people?"

"No, it's too far. I just know they were rushing in here really fast."

Bruce seemed to freeze for a moment. "I need you to stay here and out of sight."

"Why? What is it?"

"He's here. He's come for Dent."

Bruce didn't have to explain who. Abby already knew. The Joker was going after Harvey Dent first. It would only be moments now when the clown would start his rampage.

Her eyes went wide. "I have to find Aaron and everybody."

She turned to leave, but Bruce gripped her shoulders.

"They'll be fine," he said. "You just stay out here and make sure you're away from the windows."

"Then I should be fine too. I at least want to give them a head start."

"No. You are staying out here."

Abby tried to resist Bruce's hold, but he was too strong. She had to find Aaron and her friends to save them somehow. She didn't want to disobey Bruce, but it was a necessary evil. As was the action she was about to commit. Abby quickly leaned against Bruce, stabbing him in the stomach with her elbow and kicking him in the knee. Bruce let go a moment long enough for Abby to run back into the Penthouse.

She didn't injure him too much (she hoped) it was only enough to get away. Besides he had to worry about getting Dent out of the Penthouse and dealing with the Joker. He couldn't worry about Abby's wellbeing when he was Batman. He had clearly said that himself.

Abby searched desperately for Aaron or any of her other friends. She rushed through the crowd of people to get to the kitchen. Her heart was pounding and her adrenaline was rising. It was as if the room stretched on for miles, making it not possible for her to reach her friends in time. Her mind was so focused on getting to the kitchen that she didn't even realize that she had collided with someone.

"In a hurry somewhere?"

Abby smiled at the person staring at her. "Aaron! Oh thank God! We need to find everyone else."

She gripped Aaron's arm and pulled him along with her. "Where are they?"

"They're right behind me. Why are you being so jumpy?"

"No reason. I just need everyone together."

"What's wrong, Abby?"

"Just trust me, okay?"

Abby had caught sight of Sasha, Heather and T.J. heading their direction, but it was already too late. _Bang!_ A gunshot ran through the room. Everyone in the room fell silent and froze. Abby used all of the energy that she could find to turn around with Aaron. Although they weren't that far back into the crowd, Abby could see everything that was going on. A clearing had been made in the center of the room, allowing the Joker and his thugs to roam freely. He looked different in person. More terrifying. He was taller than she was, his scars were more pronounced, and he wore a purple suit. No one dared to say a word as they stared at the menacing man.

"Good evening, ladies and _gentle_men." The Joker lowered his gun. "We are…tonight's entertainment. I only have one question: where is Harvey Dent?"

He scanned around the room for anybody to answer. No one did. The Joker took a glass of champagne, spilling more than half of it, and went around the room asking people if they knew where Dent was.

Abby whispered in the lowest voice that she could. "Just stay calm…If he doesn't know we're here then he won't bother us."

"Not that he would care," Aaron whispered back. "He only seems to be interested in Dent. Do you know where he is?"

"No. I haven't seen him since my dad's speech."

"You know, I'll settle for his loved ones," the Joker said to an older gentleman.

"We're not intimidated by thugs," the man spat.

The Joker looked at him thoughtfully. "You remind me of my father." He suddenly grabbed the back of the man's neck and brought his knife to his face. "I _hated_ my father."

"Okay, stop."

Abby's heart nearly stopped when she heard the voice. She knew who it was, but she didn't want to believe it. Turning her head, she realized it was true. Rachel had stepped out of the crowd and asked a madman to pause.

The Joker pushed the man away and began to stride towards Rachel. "Well _hello _beautiful." He pushed back his hair with his knife. "You must be Harvey's squeeze. And you _are_ beautiful."

Abby watched nervously as the Joker circled around Rachel. Rachel tried to keep her brave stance, but she flinched away every time the Joker got close to her.

"You look nervous. Is it the scars? Wanna know how I got 'em?" His hands went to grab her face.

Rachel tried to avoid them, but it was no use. He clasped her face with his knife still on hand and Rachel struggling. Abby didn't know what she was doing when it happened, but her feet began to move towards her mother. Aaron's hand had gripped her arm to stop her. She wanted nothing more than to move further and save her mother. With the knife pressed to Rachel's cheek, anything could happen.

"Come here, hey. Look at me," the Joker tried to ease in his low voice.

Rachel reluctantly looked at him.

"So I had a wife," he began. "Beautiful, like you, who tells me I worry too much…who tells me I oughta smile _more_…who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks." Rachel struggled once again. "One day they carve her face. We have no money for surgeries. She can't take it. I just want to see her smile again, hm. I just want her to know that I don't care about the scars."

Abby could sense the pain in his voice. It must've been the pain that drove him crazy.

"So, I stick a razor into my mouth and do this," the Joker showed the scars on his face, "to myself. And you know what? She can't stand the sight of me! She _leaves. _Now I see the funny side: now I'm always smiling."

The Joker hand let go of Rachel giving her the chance to punch him in the stomach.

He only laughed at this action. "A little fight in you. I like that."

"Then you're gonna love me."

And just like that, all of Abby's fears were gone. The one man who had saved her countless times had finally arrived.

The Joker turned just in time for Batman to punch him in the face sending him across the room. Batman then grabbed two of the thugs and knocked them out. Unfortunately the Joker had recovered from Batman's blow and ordered one of the thugs to hit him from behind. Batman was taken off guard. The thug grabbed him and held him to the ground. The Joker kicked him the stomach far harder than Abby had hit him. The thug forcefully brought him to his feet. Abby heard a click as the Joker kicked him once more in the stomach. When the Joker brought his foot to the ground, she saw the shine of the blade at the tip of his shoe. She flinched at the sight.

The Joker went to kick him again, but Batman pushed him to the ground knocking the thug behind him to the ground in the process. Suddenly, he froze. For moment Abby wondered why he frozen until she heard the click of the gun. She turned to see the Joker holding a gun to Rachel.

Abby tried to struggle against Aaron's grip. He didn't budge one bit. It was true that he knew her too well sometimes.

"Drop the gun," said Batman.

"Oh, sure. You just take off your mask and show us _all_ who you really are. Hm?" The Joker pointed the gun higher up in the air.

Rachel shook her head at Batman.

The Joker shot the gun to the window behind causing it to shatter into pieces. Then he did something that Abby had somewhat expected, but didn't want. He held her out the window.

Batman kept his frozen position. "Let her go."

"Very poor choice of words."

The next thing that he did shocked everyone in the penthouse. Even Batman himself. The Joker released Rachel from his grasp while laughing hysterically. He let her go…but out of the window. Aaron seemed to be shocked by this as well. So shocked in fact, that he had let Abby go. There was nothing to stop her from attempting to help her mother. She ran as fast as she could to the shattered window.

"MOM!" Abby screamed.

She was just behind Batman as he jumped out the window to Rachel's rescue. Abby nearly fell off the edge of the window in her attempt to stop. Her head peered down to see what she could. Rachel slid off the incline of the roof with Batman following behind. Before they were completely off the ledge though, Batman had grasped her hand. Abby sighed in relief. Rachel was safe. Granted, they still had many stories to go, Batman would still keep her safe from harm.

"Hm, that worked out better than I thought," a voice mused.

Abby's heart had officially stopped. When she had sprinted for Rachel, it didn't occur to her that the Joker would still be standing there.

With all of her unfrozen muscles in her body, she turned her head to the Joker.

The Joker focused his attention on Abby. "Well, well, well, what do we have _here_?"

Abby didn't answer.

"Wait, don't tell me…you're, uh, daddy's little _princess_. Is that right?"

She slowly nodded. She wanted to speak. She wanted to show him that she wasn't afraid. But it wasn't possible for some reason. His face alone had made her body tense up.

"You look scared. Is it the scars?"

Again, she couldn't find herself to answer him. Why was she being this way? Abby never acted like this around Crane or Ra's, why was this guy so different?

"Here, come here."

The Joker's hands reached for her. She tried to flinch away, but he was too quick. Abby struggled as Rachel did. The difference this time: when he had brought her to look at him, she struggled no more. Her breathing had become slow and everything else when numb.

He licked his lips. "I've seen you _plenty_ of times in the newspaper, but I could never really remember your name. I'm never good with names. People have to tell me what they're name is so that I can remember i_t_. So tell me, what's your name, Princess?"

Abby opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out.

Groaning, he held up his knife in front of her face. "Don't make this harder than this has to be, Sweetheart."

She tried to use her voice, but it became mute.

"Maybe you need a little bit of encouragement…"

A sudden sharp pain occurred at her neck. Warm blood streamed down. She gasped a scream.

"I would do this to your pretty face, but I need you to tell me your name."

"Abby," she gasped out.

The Joker pressed his knife deeper into her neck. Abby screamed. "I already told you!"

"I need a full name," he growled.

She held back the tears that were rushing to her eyes. "Abigail Rachel Dawes Wayne."

"There, there, now was that _so _hard." The Joker took the knife off of her neck. "Hm, you look a little too serious right now. It's a party, isn't it? Why aren't you smiling?" He gave her a light slap on the cheek. "Smile for me now."

Abby's face didn't change shape. Tears began to stream down as she continued to feel the pain on her neck.

The Joker suddenly pressed his knife onto her mouth. "If you don't show me a smile, I'll have to carve one."

Slowly, Abby gave a forced smile. The Joker was about to say something, but police sirens in the distance distracted him.

"I guess this is where I get off," the Joker released her from her grasp. "See you around, Princess."

He let out a loud laugh as he ran out of the room with the rest of his thugs. Abby continued to stay still. Had that just happened? Was her life on thread just moments before? Most of all, had she really done nothing about it? She remembered her experiences with Crane and Ra's and not once did she let them take control of her. What was it with this Joker character that made her freeze just by looking into his eyes?

Aaron's voice had taken her out of her trance. "Abby!"

Aaron took Abby into an embrace, holding her tight. "Are you all right?"

"I…don't…know," she struggled to say.

"Your neck is bleeding." With one swift movement, he ripped piece of cloth from his white undershirt and pressed it against her neck. "Your hands are shaking too."

"Were they doing that the whole time?"

"I don't know. I was too far back, but I saw enough. He could have killed you."

"I know."

There was sudden common in the penthouse as the police entered inside. Liam was the first to enter with his gun on hand. He headed towards Aaron once he caught sight of Abby and Aaron.

"What happened here?" Liam demanded. "Where did the Joker go?"

"He's gone, but Dad, could please put a pause to the questions now?"

Although disappointed by Aaron's news, Liam looked to Abby. "Are you okay?"

Abby nodded.

"Did he do anything to hurt you?"

"He cut my neck when I didn't say what my name was and he nearly cut my mouth for not smiling," she said.

"Let me get a good look at that cut."

Aaron lifted the cloth off of Abby's neck. Liam examined the cut.

"It looks like it's not bleeding as much as it did before, but this might call for some stitches." He said. "You might want to go to the hospital."

Abby shook her head. "No, it's okay. Alfred knows enough about stitching people up."

"Well just get that fixed up. I'm gonna go question the witnesses around here. In the meantime, Aaron, you stay with Abby and the rest of your friends. I'll take all of you home once I'm done here."

"OK, Dad," said Aaron, placing the cloth back on Abby's cut.

Aaron gently guided Abby through the living room with the crowd of people still staring at her. He took her up the stairs and led her to her room. Without a single knock, Sasha and Heather came rushing in with T.J. tagging along.

"What the heck happened out there, Abby?" Sasha immediately questioned. "You just stood there like some wallflower."

"I really don't know," she groaned in response.

"I guess that clown fear is a lot serious than we thought…"

T.J. quirked an eyebrow. "And what clown fear may this be?"

"She's had it ever since our school took a fieldtrip to the carnival. Some clown jumped in front of Abby and it's scarred her for life."

"So she's always been like this around clowns?"

"She used to be a lot worse," Heather added. "She used to run and scream. We kind of helped her through it though. But I think we didn't really work on the freezing to death part yet."

"Forget her phobia of clowns for minute and concentrate on the fact that she actually survived," Aaron nearly snapped.

"Sorry I asked, man," T.J. mumbled.

Aaron did not once leave Abby's side. When she went to sit down on her bed, he followed the exact movement.

"I talked to Alfred," Sasha informed them. "He's on his way with the first aid kit."

"Abby, are you okay?" T.J. asked with concern written on his face.

"Would everyone stop asking me that?" she said, annoyed.

"Sorry, it's that you haven't said a word for a while and you look really pale."

"Then maybe I'm turning into a vampire then."

Aaron put a hand up before anyone else could say anything else. "Look, let's just not mention it for now. It'll probably make it easier for Abby to get over."

Heather sighed. "All right then, did you guys see that last episode of Gossip Girl before it was rudely interrupted."

"You're seriously asking Aaron and me that?" T.J. looked at her in disbelief.

"Yep."

Abby tried to stay focused in their conversation about the drama show, but her mind kept coming back to her encounter with the Joker. She wanted nothing more than to cry at that moment. Her stubbornness not to do so had stopped her though. Abby already had shown enough weakness in front of the Joker, she didn't want to show anymore in front of her friends. Her paranoia was quickly fading away while she was in Aaron's arms. But there was still one part of it left when she remembered the Joker's last words to her: _"See you around, Princess." _If Abby didn't know any better this was just only the beginning. And that alone scared her even more than the Joker did.

* * *

Well that was my attempt at portraying the Joker. Hopefully I did okay. I don't know when the next chapter will be up though. I started on it, but school is still a pain in the butt. Plus I'm planning to join the water polo team so I don't know. Thankfully I have everything planned out so it will mostly likely not take as long as it did when I wrote this stuff off of the top of my head.

~Emyrox567


	10. Aftermath

Aftermath

Abby groggily opened her eyes the next morning. As she moved her neck to get up, a sore pain struck her. Alfred had stitched up her cut, but it was still sore more than ever. She sat up in bed, not moving for a few long moments.

The incident that happened last night had not sunken in yet. It seemed so surreal now. A madman had come into her home, threatened the life of Harvey Dent, nearly killed her mother and almost carved Abby like a pumpkin. She had tried desperately to forget her encounter with the Joker, but all attempts had failed. Before she had gotten to bed that night, Dent had been found in a supply closet unconscious and Rachel had returned to the penthouse with no harm done.

Just as Liam had promised, he took her friends back home. Although Aaron was reluctant to go, Abby was able to convince him that she would be fine for the rest of the night. She had not been able to speak to Bruce though. Abby couldn't imagine what he was going through at this point. The death threat that the Joker had made was more real than ever and everyone was involved including his family.

After realizing that she had yet to have breakfast, she got up from her bed and put on a fresh set of clothes.

The sweet aroma of cinnamon rolls ventured into Abby's nose as she entered the kitchen. She found Alfred by the counter, setting up a plate of freshly baked cinnamon rolls.

"Glad to see you finally got up, Miss Wayne," Alfred greeted.

She gave the best smile she could. "Yeah, I had a rough night."

"I know, but what I would like to know is how you feel."

"My neck still hurts a little, but it's not too brutal."

"I meant physiologically," he corrected while handing her a cinnamon roll.

Abby accepted it. "I still don't know. I just want to forget it happened."

When she looked up from her food, she saw Bruce silently watching them. His emotions were hard to decipher. It was only a blank expression. Abby didn't know if he was angry that she had disobeyed him or he was horrified that the Joker had nearly killed his only daughter. It may have been a mix of both.

"Well I'd better get started the laundry," Alfred turned to leave. "Let me know if you require anything."

They both waited for Alfred's footsteps to disappear until someone spoke.

Bruce was the first to speak. "How are you?"

"I really don't know. First I see a clown threatening other people's lives in order for you to reveal yourself then that same clown comes in here, throws my mom out the window and literally scares me to death. You tell me how I'm feeling."

"I'm so sorry, Abby. I should've been there when he hurt you. If I had taken care of him before then maybe…"

"Dad, it's not your fault. I'm the one who didn't listen you. Like most things, this," she pointed to her cut, "is my fault."

The guilt on his face didn't melt away one bit. "I should've locked you out in the balcony or in your room so that you wouldn't have gotten yourself hurt."

"Dent would've been dead then. There was barely any time from the balcony to the Joker coming in. You said it yourself; you can't be concerned about me when you're Batman. You had a right to be concerned about Dent or Mom over me."

"Yes, but out of all of them you were the one who got hurt in the end."

"It's just a cut. Alfred said it would heal without leaving a scar."

"It doesn't matter," he snapped. "If the police hadn't shown up, I couldn't imagine what he would've done to you. He could've taken you with him if he wanted to like Ra's did."

"I may have been petrified, but I can easily snap out of it when someone tries to pull me away. You should know that. You're the one who taught me the many ways to struggle out of it."

"This guy is different, Abby. I can't figure out what he's after and it's obvious he's not going to stop."

"He's after your mask," Abby stated. "He wants you to reveal yourself so that he can come after you."

"That's the problem. He won't only find me, but he'll find you. I can guarantee you nothing scares me more than lunatics going after you because of what I do."

Abby didn't say a word to that. There seemed to be nothing to say to the statement.

Bruce's voice became soft and firm. "I want you to stay inside this penthouse until everything is fixed. Do you understand that?"

She glared at him. "You seriously think keeping me prisoner here will keep him away from me? He broke in here once, he can do it again."

"I've doubled security and had the system updated."

"Technology can be easily manipulated. You can thank people like T.J. for that."

"We can only do so much to stay as protected as we can. All I'm asking you is to stay here for the time being."

Abby tapped her chin. "Hm…what does this remind me of? Oh right, both you and mom kept me prisoner in the manor last year. Except this time this isn't for major bonding time. It's for the fact that you don't trust me enough to conquer to world on my own."

"You clearly disobeyed me and look where it got you." Bruce raised his voice once again.

"This is my problem not yours. You've got Gotham to worry about and not some stupid fifteen year old girl."

"That fifteen year old girl happens to be my daughter. Don't ask me to ignore that."

"I'm not asking you to ignore that. I'm asking you to let me grow up for a change in this kind of situation. Anytime something like this happens you always tell me to stay on the sidelines."

Bruce fumed. "Then what would you do out in the field then? As far as I've seen all you've ever done is gotten hurt."

"Are you seriously trying to tell me I'm weak?" she scoffed. "I already get enough of that from Renee. Not to mention I was the one who found out that Crane was going to ship off those drugs last year. It got you hurt and you didn't see me putting you on lock down. I have a lot more resources than you think."

"This discussion is over."

"You're right. It is."

Abby gave him a quick glare before storming off to the front door.

"Where do you think you're going?" he shouted after her.

She grabbed her bag and jacket from the couch. "Somewhere other than here!"

"You're not going anywhere if I have a say in it."

Abby could hear her father's footsteps quicken behind her.

"As of right now, I really don't care what you say," she snapped as she pressed the button for the elevator. "Besides I still would've gotten away anyway. I've done it plenty of times before."

Thankfully the elevator doors opened quicker than Bruce could catch up to her. She leaped inside just as Bruce nearly grabbed a hold of her.

Tears flooded her eyes as the elevator doors closed. "Just leave me alone for now."

She slid down the elevator wall. Abby wiped the tears off of her cheeks. This was too much to take in all in one day. Bruce had expected her to stand down as her home was being overrun by a madman. He had treated her as if she was seven years old again. A fight like this had not occurred for some time now. Abby just needed space from the situation.

The Joker had caused all these conflicts. Aaron had a right to be worried beforehand. She even felt uneasiness whenever the fundraiser was mentioned. But it was all in the past now. The best thing that could be done was to try to handle the situation somehow. Abby didn't know what she could do to help the situation herself to be honest. She could barely move when she came face to face with the man. She showed him weakness. An irritated groan escaped from her lips. Maybe if she hadn't acted the way she did, the Joker wouldn't have promised for a second meeting.

Abby wanted to convince herself that he had only said that to scare her but the lingering words from his horrific video still was clear in her mind. "I'm a man of my word," he had said. And he was. The Joker had almost taken a life from Harvey Dent and most likely succeeded in taking others. Bruce needed help. _Batman_ needed help. There was no way that he could do this on his own. Even with Gordon's help this man was unpredictable.

But what could she do to help? Abby didn't have any superpowers nor was she proficient in martial arts. She had to admit though that she could catch on to small details easily as Bruce could. Then a thought occurred to her.

Bruce was never alone when he went on patrol. Technically he was alone, but he had Lucius to make all of his gadgets and Alfred to do his research. He had people he could trust watching his back for him. He literally had a team.

Abby didn't have to be alone either. T.J. could easily help with the technical components; Sasha would be able to do the research, Aaron would be able to get information from the inside of the police department and Heather…could be there for moral support. Each of them had a special talent and Abby this was the time to use it. She didn't know how, but they would.

She jumped from her sitting position when her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket.

"Hello?" Abby answered it.

"Hey, Abby," said Heather's cheery voice. "I wanted to see how you were doing. I tried calling your home phone, but Alfred said you went out."

"Yeah…I just needed air."

"Well I know one thing that will get your mind off of that horrid clown: shopping."

"Shopping?"

"Yeah. You can at least dress better than him."

Abby gave a small laugh. "Is it just me or are you critiquing a clown on fashion?"

"Well it's true. No man needs to wear that much makeup."

"In my opinion, the makeup works for him. The scars don't seem that terrifying with it on."

"I guess that's the exception then," she sighed. "So, are you up to go to the mall? I think T.J. and Aaron are going. T.J. told me something about getting Aaron's mind off of the whole thing too. He was going to come over and check up on you, but he didn't even get the chance since T.J. nearly tackled him to the ground to get him to go to the arcade."

"Sounds like Aaron and T.J. Sure, I'll go. I kinda want to talk to you guys about something too."

"Do you need a ride?"

"Nah, I'll just take the bus."

"Can't Alfred just take you?" Heather questioned.

"No. If I go back up to the penthouse, my dad won't let me out until I'm thirty."

"Did you get into an argument with him?"

"Something like that…He just got overprotective and all that."

Heather's voice became worried. "What if he decides to call the police if you're gone too long?"

"I've done this before. He'll get over it. I'll meet you at the mall in twenty."

She turned off her phone before either of them could exchange goodbyes. Bruce was bound to find her faster if she had her cell phone. Abby charged out of the elevator once it reached the bottom floor.

Thankfully nobody had recognized her on the bus ride to the mall. Abby had briefly passed by a newsstand on her way to the bus stop and many of them consisted of the Joker invading the penthouse. Not to mention her own encounter with the man.

She found Heather waiting outside the mall doors, tapping her foot.

Abby approached her. "Hey, Heather."

Heather widened her eyes. "You look like a mess."

"Yeah as if that comment is marked as acceptable."

"I didn't mean it like that. Didn't you brush your hair this morning?"

"No. I meant to after eating breakfast and then my dad got all fatherly on me."

"Well let's get that hair taken care of before we meet the guys. Aaron will explode if he sees you like this after last night."

Abby let Heather lead her inside of the mall. As usual, Heather carried her own hair salon in her purse. She once again used Abby as her doll until her hair was the least bit frizzy. Unlike Sasha, Heather didn't question what the argument between Abby and Bruce was about. Abby didn't feel like talking about it anyway. This was cool down time, not a therapy session.

They ventured around the mall after Heather was finished. Abby did her best to avoid the subject of the Joker at all costs in their conversation. It only brought up memories of her fight with Bruce and her deep cut that pierced through her neck. To prevent people from recognizing her, she pulled up her hood to cover her stitches.

"You really shouldn't worry, Abby," Heather hissed. "Nobody cares what happened last night. Well—they care—but not in zealous way obviously."

Abby shook her head. "I'm not taking any chances. The last time I thought nobody cared about Bruce Wayne's daughter I was hunted down by reporters for a week. This situation just gives them another reason to hunt me down again."

"I'm just saying you look kind of emo with the hood on and all."

"Thanks for the concern anyway."

"So how long do you think it will be until your dad figures out you're here?"

"I'm not sure. I think after our argument this morning we both need a break."

"Fair enough, I guess." Heather's head perked up. "Hey look, the guys are at the food court now."

Abby looked in the direction Heather was facing and saw T.J. eating a hamburger while Aaron was staring thoughtfully at the table. Did he really feel bad about the situation as Bruce did? She didn't blame him for what happened, but that didn't stop Aaron from blaming himself. He was the one holding her back firmly up to the point where Rachel was thrown out the window. Maybe seeing Aaron wasn't such a good idea after all. It would only make his guilt worse.

Heather wouldn't have any of it obviously. By some strange intuition, Heather must've seen Abby's hesitation so she decided to take it upon herself to push Abby towards Aaron and T.J. Abby didn't put up much of a fight anyway.

Heather was the first to greet them. "Hey guys."

T.J. looked up from his food. "Hey, what's up?"

"Not much just hanging out like I said I would with Abby."

"Same thing here with Aaron."

Abby and Heather sat themselves across the table from the boys. Abby tried to resist from looking at Aaron's depressed expression as much as she could. The guilt for causing him this pain probably would've eased better if she didn't leave her room that morning.

"So how are you, Abby?" T.J. asked.

"Fine," she simply said.

"OK…See, Aaron, she's fine."

Aaron showed no sign of response.

"You blame yourself too, don't you?" Abby blurted.

She shut her mouth as soon as the words escaped her. Those words were meant to stay in her private state of mind.

Aaron looked up from the table. "In a lot of ways, yes I do blame myself."

"Well don't," she said. "I was the one who ran without thinking."

"I had you there for a second protected, but then I just let you go."

"Look he would've came up to me anyway with the way I was screaming. Then he would've hurt you."

"I don't care. You're the one with a scar on your neck and I did nothing to stop it."

"It's not going to be a scar, Aaron," Abby assured. "Alfred said as long as I keep on the stitches that it'll heal without making a mark."

"He shouldn't have left so early," he muttered.

"Who?"

He exclaimed the name, "Batman! He shouldn't have left so early. Didn't he realize that the clown was still inside with a big crowd of people?"

"It was either stay or save my mom."

"Well its one life versus a hundred others."

Abby snorted at the accusation. "Oh, so you're saying that he should have ditched my mom like she was nothing, Aaron?"

T.J. smiled nervously. "You know what? This looks like this is turning into one of those couples fights, so I'm gonna head back to the arcade."

Heather stood up from her seat. "I second that."

Both Aaron and Abby screamed at them. "No! You stay!"

Heather reluctantly sat back down in her seat. "Fine, make us apart of your old married couple argument…"

"Heather, I don't think this is an old married couple argument," T.J. whispered warily.

Abby ignored them. "So my mom's life is basically less than those rich snobs, is what you were saying?"

"N-no, that's not what I meant," Aaron stuttered. "I just meant that there are more citizens in Gotham than just your mom to worry about."

"I'm still taking this as my mom should've just perished outside of that window."

"Calm down, let's just forget about your mom for a second and focus onto Batman here. If he hadn't been so slow at revealing who he was then the Joker wouldn't have shown up at the fundraiser at the first place."

She fumed. "He's the only one that can stop the Joker, Aaron. I don't think he'll be as effective if he takes off his mask."

Aaron leaned over to her. "Two people died last night. Commissioner Loeb and Judge Surrillo. Not to mention Harvey Dent was one of the Joker's targets. All of which, may I add, play a big part in our government. My dad could be next, Abby."

Abby understood Aaron's place in his argument. His father was in danger. But unbeknownst to Aaron and the rest of the world, Abby's father was in more danger than anyone else in Gotham.

"I get it," she said, "but what am I supposed to do about it? You have no idea how much I want to help. The truth is though, I'm just a kid. I don't know anything that could be resourceful to stopping the Joker."

"I'm not asking you to battle the Joker for God's sake. I'm just saying this guy is waiting too long and needs to take action like he usually does."

"It's not that simple."

"And how would you know that?" He eyed her suspiciously. "Have you been talking to him lately?"

"No," she answered automatically. "Last night was the first time I've seen him in over a year."

"It sure doesn't seem like it. I understand that he saved your life from a few muggers last year and helped to reconcile your relationship with your dad, but this is getting beyond that. Lives are being lost because he is hesitating."

"You don't understand what you're saying," Abby's eyes averted to the table.

"I understand enough to know that if Batman wants to protect the city he'll do what he has to and come out of the shadows."

Aaron was right. Harsh, but right. It was the bitter truth that Bruce was trying to take in at the moment. Abby knew that she wasn't making it any better by running out on him that morning, but she couldn't handle his controlling attitude. At this rate, Batman would reveal himself if more deaths occurred. A tear streamed her cheek. It seemed as if her father had returned the day before, now he there was walking out the door again. Aaron didn't understand the complexity of the problem. He didn't know that Batman was Abby's father. She wanted to tell him greatly. Unfortunately with Joker on the rampage, she had to keep that part quiet in order to keep him safe.

Abby rose from her seat. "You know, this really isn't making me feel any better. I might as well go back home or somewhere else."

Aaron sighed. "Abby, I didn't mean to—"

Then that voice came again. The voice that made Abby freeze inside all over again. Her cut even pained at the sound of it.

"He_llo_ ladies and gentlemen," it said over the intercom. "Gotham City Mall is coming to an abrupt close today due to a very _special_ event. We're going to play a game."

Abby looked to her friends who held the same fearful expression. The voice was unmistakably the Joker.

* * *

Sorry if this took awhile to get out. I thought I was going to do the NanoWrimo this year, but my schedule already busy enough with school and water polo. Well I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. The next chapter should hopefully be out soon if I finish it today or later this weekend.

~Emyrox567


	11. Hide and Seek

Hide and Seek

"The game is fairly simple," the Joker continued. "I choose my players and the rest have no choice but the exit the mall in an orderly fashion. Anyone who doesn't oblige to these rules will cause this mall to blow to smithereens."

Aaron pulled Abby back down to her seat. "Stay hidden. He can see you through the security cams."

"And what makes you think he'll choose me?" Abby hissed.

She knew it was a stupid question when it slipped out of her mouth. The way she reacted last night was a sure indicator that the Joker wanted her to be a part of this game.

"Just stay low," said Aaron.

All of the fury that Abby held towards Aaron suddenly disappeared with the thought of the Joker clear in her mind. Abby pulled her hood a little more over face and focused her concentration on the table.

"Hmm…now that I think about it that game seems a little _too easy_. Change of plans: I'll send out my henchman to hunt all of you down. If you happen to escape their grasp, you can play the game." The Joker's voice turned soft with a building volume. "One…two…three…Go!"

A gun shot rang throughout the mall as did the screams of the other shoppers. Abby looked up to see thugs in clown masks marching around the food court grabbing any person they could.

"Where do you think they're taking them?" Heather asked, fear clear in her voice.

Abby got up. "I don't know, but let's not find out. We'll be sitting ducks if we stay here."

Everyone got up from their seat in agreement. They ran through the crowd avoiding the Joker's thugs at all costs. It seemed to be a never-ending maze as they ventured through the scrambling crowd. Chaos ran amuck around the mall. Abby was only doing her best to not get flattened by the horde of people.

"Where are we going here?" Aaron questioned as he ran beside her.

"I haven't thought of that part yet," she answered truthfully.

"You don't have a plan?"

"Do you?"

A shriek came behind them. "Hey! Let go of me!"

Abby looked back with wide eyes. Heather was struggling against a thug while T.J. desperately tried to pull the thug off of her.

"You're not going anywhere, girlie," the thug said gruffly.

"Not with you, she isn't!" T.J. attempted to pull Heather's hand out of the thug's grip.

The attempt was fatal unfortunately. The thug swung his fist to T.J., knocking him down to the ground.

"T.J.!" screamed Heather.

Abby sprinted towards the thug with Aaron trailing behind.

She came up behind him. "Hey you!"

The thug spun around to face her. Once he did, Abby jabbed her fist into his nose.

"Ah!" the thug winced setting Heather free.

Abby grabbed him by the shoulder, lifting her knee high enough to hit him between his legs. She then spun him around and pushed him to the ground.

"I'd stay there if I were you," she said to him.

"I don't remember learning that in boxing," Aaron stared down at the thug.

"I took a couple of self-defense classes," Abby said quickly. "Where's T.J.?"

"Over here."

Abby glanced back to see Heather supporting T.J. up from the ground. This was most definitely not the last of the thugs. She was more than grateful now that Bruce had taught her a few tricks to defend herself. Unfortunately she didn't have the energy to take down every thug in the mall.

"Let's get going," she said to them.

With that they continued on to find somewhere to hide. Abby was careful to stay within the crowd in case any of the thugs spotted her out in the open. They pressed onto their straight path until Aaron pulled her into a turn.

"Aaron, where are we going?" Abby demanded.

"I figured out the second part to this plan," he said.

He pulled her into an empty corridor where not one person was in sight. The wall at the end of the room caught Abby's eye immediately.

"Are you trying to get us killed?" she asked incredulously. "This is a dead end."

"I wasn't referring to that."

Aaron pointed towards the door beside them.

"You better hurry up, man," T.J. warned. "I don't know who saw us come in here or not."

After pulling a key out of his pocket, Aaron went to open the door.

Abby raised an eyebrow. "Where'd you get the key?"

"It's best not to question it, Abby," said Heather. "I'd rather have a key than be taken by the Joker any day."

Aaron opened the door. "Hurry! Get inside!"

Abby stepped aside allowing Heather and T.J. to go first. She waited for Aaron to do the same, but Aaron gently pushed her inside first. He followed her in, closing the door behind him. Darkness was the only thing to be seen until a small light bulb flickered from above.

T.J. was the first to speak. "What now?"

"We stay low," was all Aaron said before he turned off the switch for the light bulb above them.

"What is this place anyway? It smells dirty and soapy at the same time."

"The janitor's closet."

Although nobody could see it, Abby narrowed her eyes at Aaron. "And how did you get the key to the janitor's closet?"

"It was Jared who took the key, not me. I was going to return it today."

She didn't even bother to ask why Jared would need the key. It was probably for a prank that he was planning to do later. Besides that was beyond what was happening at that moment. The Joker was invading the mall for a reason that was unknown. Abby didn't even want to get to the fact that the Joker may be targeting her next.

"Why do you think he's doing this?" Heather asked under a whisper.

Abby gulped. "I don't know. Maybe there's someone here he wants to target."

"You."

She cocked her head in the direction of T.J.'s voice. "Me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he gave a humorless laugh. "So far the people who have died were apart of Gotham's crime unit. Your mom is the assistant DA and she's dating the DA himself. Not to mention you're the daughter of Bruce Wayne. It's fair to say that he might be after you."

"Are you saying I'm some kind of prize?"

"I'm not a psychologist, but he's after something and it's not just blood. That stunt he showed on TV was to prove that he will not only kill us, but torture us in the process."

"The next thing you say better be productive, Fox," Aaron seethed. "Or else I'm going to throw you back out into the crowd of people."

"I'm not trying to scare anybody, Aaron," T.J. stated. "I'm simply pointing out the facts on why the Joker may be after her."

"He's after Batman. I don't think he's going to spend time on Abby."

Batman. That was who he was after. And Abby had associated with him for a time. But how would he have known that besides the generic facts of her wealthy family? T.J.'s points were valid, nevertheless, who was there to say that they were true besides the Joker?

Heather broke off the argument before it started between the boys. "The police are bound to notice something is wrong, right? They'll come here and stop it."

"And that rate, everyone will be dead," Aaron replied bitterly. "By the time they came last night, Miss Dawes was thrown out the window and Abby nearly had her face carved."

"What do you expect we do then?" Abby hissed. "From what I saw, we were running. And when people run, it's because they don't know what to do."

"We need to think of something. Even if the police did arrive on time, he already sent out the warrant to blow this place up. Whoever decides to go in or out of here kills everyone else."

"Again, how do we know that? There's nothing we know besides the Joker is taking people hostage to most likely draw Batman in."

"And we're just going to sit here?"

Abby didn't answer to that. She had said something similar to Bruce. Her mind traveled back to that morning. Would that be the last conversation she would ever have with him? _No, don't think like that, Abby, _she scolded herself. Abby tried not to let those thoughts enter her mind but it was almost impossible not to in a situation like this.

Abby then gave a small whisper. "We need to stay quiet or else they'll find us."

No one seemed to rebel to that as their only reply was silence. Abby sat down on the ground, leaning against the door. She listened to the screams of panic on the other side. As each moment passed the screams grew faint. On one occasion or two she would hear the loud piercing sound of a gunshot. She cringed at the thought of someone getting hurt because of her. It still wasn't a guarantee that the Joker was after her but that didn't stop the thought from lingering into her mind.

Hours seemed to have passed by until somebody spoke again.

"Do you hear that?" Aaron uttered to no one in particular.

"Hear what? I don't hear anything," said Heather.

"Exactly."

Aaron didn't have to say it. Everyone had been taken.

"Is it just me or did I just enter into some whole new horror movie," Heather moaned.

_Bang!_ The door budged. Abby jumped from the door to her feet.

"Yep, I'm definitely in a horror movie."

Abby placed a hand on Heather's mouth before she could say anymore. The loud banging continued.

"Please!" a voice came from behind the door. "Help! They're coming after me!"

The voice sounded familiar yet Abby couldn't remember who it was.

"I know there's someone in there. I barely escaped. I swear no one is holding me against my will!"

Abby didn't know whether to trust the voice or not. It could be a trap or if they didn't let them in the person behind the door could giveaway their hideout. She sighed as she unlocked the door, praying that none of the Joker's thugs were with the person behind the door. Abby peeked out the door though the very small opening she had made. Her mouth dropped.

Renee Kendal stood in front of the door, looking pleadingly at her. "Please. They'll find me soon enough and then they'll find you."

Abby had half of a mind to shut the door right in her face. The other half, unfortunately, wanted to let her in before the Joker's thugs came for her. If this hostage situation was Abby's fault and people got hurt (even Renee), she couldn't live with the guilt.

She grabbed Renee's wrist, pulling her inside. After Renee was inside, Abby locked the door behind her turning on the light.

Renee held the same shocked expression. "Wayne? What are you doing here?"

Abby glared at her. "Hmm, there's a clown on the loose and I'm taking cover. What does it look like?"

"I thought you wouldn't be out in the public eye after last night."

Abby became silent. It was not meant to be a mean comment, but Renee was the last person she wanted to talk to about her personal issues.

"What are _you_ doing here, Kendal?" Aaron asked, sourly.

Renee rolled her eyes. "Shopping, duh. The next thing I know this weird guy comes over the intercom, I'm taken by this perv and almost stuffed with everyone else in the mall's storage area."

"Is that where they're keeping everybody?"

"Didn't you hear me? Yes, they're keeping everybody there."

"How did you escape though?"

"I ran as soon as they stopped looking. I heard voices behind me so I kept running until I ran into here."

"You didn't bring them here, did you?" Aaron demanded.

"No. They were long gone when got here. The mall is ghost town now. I thought I was the only who got out."

"Wait," said T.J. "If everyone's gone, does that mean we won the Joker's game?"

Abby shook her head. "No. It only means we're playing it."

"Shouldn't someone have called 911 by now?" Heather asked. "We all have our phones right?"

"The Joker could set the bomb off in a heartbeat if he saw one police officer in the parking lot. It's too risky."

Renee crossed her arms. "Then what do you suggest we do, Wayne?"

Abby gulped. "The Joker wants to play a game. I think it's best if we know what the rules are and in order to that we have to get out of here."

Aaron was obviously against the idea. "What if he decides to just blow us up anyway? What are we going to do then?"

"We'll improvise." Abby turned the doorknob. "Let's go show the clown who he's messing with."

Renee sighed. "Yeah, a tech geek, a boxer, a track runner and a preppy princess."

Abby smirked at her. "Was that me or you that you were referring to?"

Renee remained silent.

Heather got up to her feet along with T.J.

"The faster this horror movie is over the better," said Heather. "No offense, Renee, but the blonds are usually the first ones to go."

"It still is offensive, you know," said Renee.

"I just thought I say that in case you decided to try anything."

"Don't argue, guys," T.J. hissed. "This is exactly what he wants."

Abby was the first to walk out of the room. Slowly but surely so did everyone else. Renee's story was proved to be true. The mall was completely deserted. Store windows were broken; empty shopping bags scattered on the ground and not one sound was made. Abby cautiously walked out into the main hallway with everyone gradually following behind her.

"Ah, so this must be our players."

She froze at the sound of the intercom. Taking in a deep breath, she readied herself for what the Joker had to say.

"The peppy ginger, the hacker, Kendal's spoiled brat, the cop's boy and Gotham's princess. This game should be interesting."

"What are the rules, Joker?" Abby shouted to him.

"Rules?" he let out a series of small giggles. "There are no rules other than to survive. My guards are still hunting for more except they won't be as merciful. One by one each of you will disappear and be brought to me. The last one will have the choice of either staying behind and saving the others or leaving this place with their lives."

"What happens to those who are brought to you?" Aaron seethed through his teeth.

"That you will have to find out on your own. You have five minutes to split up and/or strategize."

The other side of intercom went dead.

Heather grasped the top of her head quietly chanting, "It's just a nightmare, it's just a nightmare, it's just a nightmare…"

"Well that's one down," said Renee with no emotion in her voice. "Who's gonna be next to lose their head?"

Heather glared at Renee. "I'm trying to calm myself down before I start to hyperventilate."

"Are you sure it's the blonds that go down first because I think it's the gingers."

Abby watched as Heather's fists clenched.

"No, stop fighting!" she shouted to both of them. "This is exactly his game: we're supposed to tear each other a part."

"I'm trying to stay calm, but Renee obviously doesn't agree," Heather argued.

Abby faced Renee. "Look, I know we aren't the least bit of friends, but we need to work together if you want to get out of here and stop the mall from being blown up."

Renee snorted. "Easy for you to say considering you freeze up at the sound of that clown's voice. I'm no genius but we need a plan that can outsmart even the Joker himself."

"But how?" Aaron cornered her. "We don't know where he is and it's obvious we're not getting any help anytime soon."

"I was hoping you guys could figure that out. Right now I'd rather be in that basement than be taken to a madman."

"He has to be in some control center," T.J. said in a low voice.

Everyone snapped their heads towards him for more of his theory.

"If he can hear and see us, then he must be in the main security center," he continued. "I can get through and shut down all of the security cams then automatically connect it to my computer."

Aaron's eyes lit up. "The place where we were hiding before didn't have any security cameras. That's why Jared wanted to start his prank there and why the Joker didn't see us at first."

"All right part three is under way, but what about part four of our glorious plan?" Abby said skeptically. "That still doesn't stop the Joker from his 'game'."

"Good point, but it does weaken the Joker's side a bit."

"Wait. What did you say?"

"It weakens the Joker's side a bit? What are you getting at here?"

Suddenly everything was coming together for Abby. "Maybe we can't get to the Joker himself, but we can weaken him. Without his henchmen, he's nothing."

T.J.'s eyes sparked. "I got it! I'll shut down the security cameras for as long as I can and the rest of us can set up traps around here for the thugs."

"And when the time is right," Aaron continued, "You'll turn the cameras back on and we'll play victim leading them into their traps."

The plan seemed flawless at the time. It gave Abby hope that she would escape this mess. But then Renee had to point out the one flaw the plan had.

Renee raised an eyebrow. "How are we gonna convince the Joker to not blow up this mall? I mean, once he realizes that we're breaking the one rule to his game, he might blow us to smithereens."

"He has to have the detonator," Aaron pointed out. "We can swipe it from him once we've taken down as many henchmen as we can."

Abby's eyes and mouth went wide open. "Are you serious? This guy is dangerous, Aaron. He'll shoot you the minute he sees you."

"Let's just say I won't be me when I see him."

Abby opened her mouth to object, but T.J. interrupted her. "Before one of your fights gets out of hand, we better go back to our hiding place. I'll be able to program my laptop to the security cameras from there."

Everyone mutely agreed as they went back to the janitor's closet. Their five minutes were almost up. They needed to prepare as much as they could for the storm that was to come.

T.J. immediately slipped out his laptop upon entering the small room. He sat down on the floor, his fingers dancing across the keyboard.

"Let's start splitting up now," Aaron announced.

"Split up?" Abby crossed her arms. "Isn't that exactly what the Joker wants us to do?"

"I meant in groups. One group stays here and keeps an eye on the security cams while the other group goes out and creates traps for the henchmen."

T.J. spoke with his eyes still glued to the computer screen. "Hang on there, Aaron. You guys are not going out there without some kind of communication device."

Aaron held up his phone. "We have cell phones."

"No. He can easily track that. I've got walkie-talkies in my bag. Take those with you, but leave one here. I'll have to keep you updated."

Heather was the one to look through T.J.'s bag. One by one, she took out the walkie-talkies, handing each one to Abby, Aaron, and T.J.

"Who's the fourth one going to go to?" she asked, still holding one walkie-talkie in her hand. "First of all, who's going out there and who is staying here?"

Abby's eyes searched around the room for any answers. This was an issue that had to be decided now.

Aaron let out a heavy breath. "There are five of us, three go out there and two stay here including T.J. I'll go."

"I'll go," Abby declared.

"No, you're not," Aaron snapped at her.

"Yes, I am."

"There's a possibility that the Joker may be after you. I'm not about to let you feed yourself to the sharks."

She clenched her fists in frustration. "Stop acting like my father and let me do what I want!"

The room was silent after Abby's outburst. Even T.J. stopped typing on his keyboard. She had no regret of her statement. Ever since the Joker broke into the fundraiser, Aaron hadn't been quite himself lately. She could distinctly relate him to Bruce.

Heather gave a heavy sigh. "Fine. So far we have Abby and Aaron going out there. I'll stay behind with T.J."

"Are you serious?" Aaron growled. "Don't you remember the last time we let her do what she wanted? Wayne Manor ended up going ablaze because she could leave her drunken father alone."

Abby laughed, harshly. "Sure, talk about me like I'm not here. I'm tired of people treating me like I'm a fragile piece of glass. I'm going whether anybody has a say in it or not."

T.J. looked up from his computer screen. "How many times do I have to go through this? Stop arguing and agree to disagree! He's trying to make us argue so much that we have no choice but to split up. Why do you think he let Renee go? He somehow knows you guys have some history with her."

"I have to say, Techy," Renee mused to herself, "that makes sense. He's after the same plan we're doing: he's trying to weaken our side. I have to say, he didn't do such a bad job choosing the minds he wants to mess with."

Abby glared at her. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"I wasn't lying when I said that you had to keep your emotions in check. The outburst you just preformed proved that…and a few problems with your little relationship. With these issues alone, the Joker can easily find our weakest point."

"Well, if you think you're so smart then why don't you come with us?"

Abby held out a walkie-talkie towards her.

Renee only stared at it. "You really trust me with this?"

"I don't trust you here. I've known you long enough to know that you'll do anything to benefit yourself. At least when you're out there with us, you won't be able to hurt anyone else but yourself if you decide to try anything."

Renee gazed down at the walkie-talkie before reluctantly taking it out of Abby's hand.

"You're not the only one who knows who their team members are," Abby said in a monotone.

"Team member?"

"Why not? We're all aiming to survive, right?"

"I guess you could put it that way."

"Got it!" T.J. held up his arms in victory. "All the cameras are under my control now. I suggest you guys go out there now before he sends his goons out there to get you guys."

Aaron nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"Let's get going." Abby headed for the door. "Call us if there are any problems, T.J."

"Roger that," T.J. replied.

Abby's hand gripped the cold door handle as Aaron's voice hissed in her ear. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

She bit her lip. "I'm not quite sure what I wanna do anymore. I'll have to figure that out when I get out there."

Aaron opened his mouth to say something, but Renee's annoyed voice cut in. "Would you lovebirds stop cuddling with each other and get on with the mission? The faster this is over, the better."

They mutely agreed with Renee. With one turn of the doorknob, all three of them walked out of the room. Abby glanced at the empty hall ahead. Butterflies clenched her stomach. _I hope you know what you're doing, Abs. _

Thanks for reading! Again, sorry if this took awhile to get out. School and water polo have succeeded in taking over my life. Anyway, this chapter was meant to be ten times longer but I decided divide in two parts. So you'll see Abby battle it out in the next chapter. I hope everyone had a merry christmas or is having fun celebrating the holidays. Happy New Year and see you all next time!

~Emyrox567


	12. Battlefield

Battlefield

"All right, we each take one wing of the mall," Aaron said almost immediately. "Kendal, you take the east wing. Abby, you're in charge of the west wing and I'll take the south."

"Who put you in charge, West?" Renee sneered. "Last I checked we were a team here."

"Someone had to take charge for the time being. Now, the Joker must've noticed that the security cams are out of his control so he's bound to send his henchmen out very soon. I suggest we start to build our traps now."

"What do we use to do that?"

"It's a mall, Kendal. Be creative."

"We better get going then," Abby advised. "He's bound to send his henchmen faster than he intended with the security cams out of order."

Aaron was the first to move. "Let's go then. Both of you call if there is any problems. That is an order."

"Geez, Wayne, I didn't know your boyfriend was so bossy," Renee hissed to her.

Abby shook her head. "Neither did I."

They soon followed Aaron's lead out of the short hallway. All of them quickly separated to their assigned wing. Abby gripped onto the walkie-talkie tightly as she looked around her wing of the mall. Her eyes lied on pet store and a candy store next to it. She had always found it odd how those two were put together. When she was younger, her mother would always take her inside the pet store to look at the dogs inside. Abby would always crave for a puppy whenever she was inside. She remembered the bee display they had as well in there. Gotham was a strange place.

But wasn't there honey in the candy shop?

An idea easily sparked into her head. Abby immediately charged for the candy shop. She rushed inside nearly slipping on the gumballs that lied messily on the ground. Her set on the two jars of honey on the front counter. _Jars would be useless, unless there's something big to hold it in. _Abby could've sworn she had seen a hardware store nearby. There would sure be something the honey could be in and a rope as well to hold the honey to the ceiling.

Abby sprinted out of the store and to the hardware store across the hall. She hated to steal, but it was better than the Joker blowing up the mall. Her eyes wondered around aimlessly for something the honey could reside in. Soon enough, her eyes locked onto a bucket and a large rope in plastic wrapping. In a flash, she began to unwrap the plastic off the rope as she took the bucket with her to the candy shop.

Once the rope was bare, Abby took the large honey jars and twisted the lids open. One by one, each of the jars were poured into the bucket. In each one, the honey slowly dripped down into the bucket. The bucket was filled almost to the top with honey when she finished. With the rope by her side and the bucket at hand, she ventured into the pet store.

As she had suspected, the store was completely empty. Only the animals inside the cracked display cases resided. Abby quickly found the bees near the cash register in their glass box container. She was almost there. All she had left was putting the whole plan together. But how? The ceiling was full of pipes that the rope could easily rest on top of yet how would she get the rope up there? _What would Batman do? _

She suddenly remembered one of Bruce's lessons, "Always mind your surroundings," he had said. Abby scanned the room as Batman probably would. Her eyes rested on top of two large bookcases full of dog guides on each side of the doorway and slowly traveled back up to the pipe-filled ceiling. Without giving it a second thought, she placed the bucket on the ground and sprinted towards the first bookcase. She pulled it down, inclining it to her, causing all of the books to fall around her. Once she pushed the empty bookcase back to the wall, she ran to the other one to repeat what she had done to the previous.

When she finished, the front of the store was covered in a sea of books while the birds squawked at the noise the act created. Grasping the bundle of rope in her hand, she began climbing up the bookcase. She took special caution for when she reached the top. The bookcase couldn't have been stable for all she knew. For that exact reason Abby tied the first end of the rope to the pipe nearest to the door as fast as she could. Jumping back down to the ground, she pushed the bookcase into the door way.

Abby quickly grasped the handle of the bucket and swung it up to the top of the bookcase. After once again climbing the bookcase, she looped the other end of the rope through the handle of the bucket making a small knot to hold it in place but leaving a large amount of rope left. Balancing on her tip-toes, she anxiously looped the rope through the pipe just above the door. With the end of the rope on hand, Abby leaped off the bookcase to the other side, her feet landing in front of the open doors. She then closed one of the doors and tied the rope as tight as she possibly could.

Abby admired her work of art: she would lead a goon inside and when the time was right she would open the door to spill the honey over him which would encourage the bees to attack him. Now she needed to play victim. Using the open door, she ventured back to the ominous empty setting. Currently she did not see any of the Joker's goons, so she sat on a nearby bench.

She took out her walkie-talkie, pressing the "talk" button. "T.J., come in."

T.J.'s voice came soon came through. "I'm in. What's up?"

"I've already set up my trap. Do you see any of the Joker's goons heading my way?"

"Yeah almost. He sent out a bunch of them after I hacked the security cams. I think a couple of them are heading your way now, actually. Are you ready?"

"More or less," she sighed. "Tell me where they are now."

The question was quickly answered with loud harsh voice that echoed throughout the hallway. "Hey, look! There's one of them over there!"

She spun around to find two men in clown masks running her way. "I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

Abby stashed the walkie-talkie in her pocket before running in the direction of the pet store. The goons' foot-steps became faster as she attempted to out run them. Although she could see the pet store within a few feet away, pure fear made it feel miles away. A sudden hand grasped her arm firmly, pulling her back.

"Got her!"

She struggled against the goon's grip. "Let me go!"

"Sorry, it doesn't work like that, sweetheart."

"I guess you're right." With her free hand, she balled it into a fist crashing it against his lower stomach. "That's how it works."

The goon flinched, releasing her. "You little brat!"

Abby took this as her chance to escape back to the pet shop. She dashed right through the open door of the shop with loud footsteps following behind. Her eyes immediately fell on the bee display. This was it. She would be done for if this plan didn't work. Abby grabbed the handle of the display, searching for a way to open it.

"End of the line, kid," one of the goons growled from behind.

She turned to find both of the goons blocking her way to the door. Abby scanned the room for a way through them so that she could set the trap. Much to her dismay, the only way out was to squeeze in between the two goons. _Maybe if I run fast enough, I'll make it past them before they can catch me again._ But she knew that was a lie. It seemed as if every time she tried to run, she would end up on the ground. _It's worth a try._ Holding the display close to her chest, she sprinted towards the space between the goons.

As she was running, her foot got caught on one of the books on the floor causing her to fall to the ground. Abby didn't stop there though. Apparently the floor had been waxed, because she was sliding across the goons faster than she could run. Before she knew it, she stopped right in front of the closed door.

"Get her while she's down!" one of them commanded.

Abby waited until they were precisely under the bucket. Her hand clutched the edge of the door in anticipation. They were almost there…just a few more steps. Her arm quickly pulled the door open causing the bucket of honey to fall on the goons. As soon as that first step was taken, she searched once again for an opening in the glass case. There was no time for that though. Using as much strength as she could, Abby smashed the case down to the ground. For a moment, she thought the bees were going to come after her but then they changed direction towards the goons.

The goons ran out of the store in panic.

"This isn't the last you'll hear from us, kid!" one of them shouted.

A slight smile came up from Abby's lips. She had actually taken care of a couple of criminals without the aid of Batman. Her victory was short lived when a stinging pain came from her hands. Abby looked down to find her hands almost filled with blood. The glass must have been so sharp that she didn't even feel it pierce her. _I might as well get back to T.J. and see if there's a first aid kit in the closet. _Abby carefully got to her feet, rubbing the blood against her jeans.

She walked down the hall, heading back towards the hideout. The bleeding was too bad. It stopped gushing after a minute or so. With this in mind, Abby didn't worry too much about going about unarmed.

_Tap-Tap-Tap_

Abby froze. The tapping became closer and louder. Her eyes frantically travelled around the mall. She had almost forgotten the high possibility of there being more than two goons venturing the halls. She mentally prepared herself of what was to come next despite having the lack of tools to defend herself.

She let out a small yelp. "Ah!" Abby felt her body collapse to the ground with force.

She slowly lifted her head up to find a fearful Renee beside her.

"What are you doing here?" asked Abby, almost in rage. "You're supposed to be at your post."

"T-they're coming," Renee stuttered. "I tried, but all I could do was run."

Abby shot her head up in the direction Renee ran from expecting to see a couple of the Joker's goons following behind, but the hallway was empty.

Rolling her eyes, Abby got to her feet. "Really, Kendal? Even in a life and death situation you're still trying to lie your way out of this?"

Renee looked at the hall with wide eyes. "I wasn't lying! They were right behind me."

"Was that before or after you were trying to get out of here?"

She jumped up to her feet. "Look Wayne, I may have lied many times in the past but this isn't something I would lie about."

"I'm finding that hard to believe. I know you paid off your brother so that you could have your company when you're older."

"How did you know that?" Renee crossed her arms.

"A friend offered me leverage over you, but I said no because then I would be exactly like you."

"That's easy for you to say. You don't have anybody to compete with moneywise."

"By 'competition', do you mean siblings?" Abby sneered. "I would give anything to have siblings or even a whole family for that matter. You don't understand what it's like to have parents that aren't even married."

"Okay, maybe I don't. But I do know you're the cause of all of this. If you hadn't reacted the way you did last night then…"

"Then what? We wouldn't be this mess? I wouldn't have come here to get away from my dad or gotten in a huge argument with Aaron or hundreds of people wouldn't be waiting in anxiety?" She snapped. "I didn't know how to react, okay! No one knows what's gonna happen next, so the best thing we can do is try to hold ourselves together."

"What are you guys doing away from your posts?" a voice scolded from down the hall.

Abby took her eyes away from Renee and focused them on a figure running towards them. As the figure got closer, Abby could see the identity of the figure.

Aaron approached them, holding up his walkie-talkie. "I've been trying to call you guys for the past twenty minutes."

"Well, I was on my way to get my hands fixed when Renee crashed into me," Abby explained with slight venom in her voice.

"I told you: I was running from one of the Joker's men," Renee argued. "He just happened to be gone by the time you looked."

Aaron stopped Abby before she could further the argument. "Wait, did you say he disappeared?"

"Duh. What's it to you?"

Aaron suddenly broke into a run towards the hide out.

Abby chased after him. "Aaron, what's going on?"

"T.J. hasn't been answering me for the past ten minutes," he answered her, still continuing his path.

Abby's eyes grew two sizes. Something was definitely wrong. T.J. wouldn't joke around about this kind of situation.

She took out her walkie-talkie, pressing the button for T.J.'s channel. "T.J., answer me! We're freaking out here. At least let Heather talk."

She released the button to allow him to talk. Not a sound came. Only a long fuzz. Abby pressed the button again. "Answer me! This isn't the time to fool around."

"Forget it, he's not answering," said Renee, bluntly.

Abby ignored her. She wouldn't let the horrible possibilities of T.J. and Heather's whereabouts enter her mind. There was still a chance they were inside the janitor's closet. _He probably turned the volume all the way down by accident._ The thought only reassured her for a few moments when she thought of the Joker card she found on the side of the street only a week ago. A mere coincidence turned into complete chaos.

They soon arrived back at the hideout. Aaron went to put his key to the door, but he didn't need to. The door quietly creaked open at his touch. Abby's hopes of her friends' safety slowly began to disappear.

Aaron dashed inside. "T.J.! Heather!"

Abby and Renee followed him inside. All of them stopped dead on the spot when they saw the room. Neither T.J. nor Heather were inside. They were gone. Abby half expected the room to be trashed, but it was in the same condition they had found it before. Maybe T.J. and Heather got out before the Joker's men could grab them. That's what Abby hoped at least until she spotted T.J.'s laptop in the middle of the room.

Aaron bent down to the laptop. "This doesn't look good."

"So what?" Renee shrugged. "Maybe the geek forgot his computer on the way out of here. I left my shopping bag behind when I was running from those clown masks."

"As true as that may be, I don't think that happened." Aaron took the laptop off the ground and brought it to them. "Look."

On the laptop lied a sticky note with the sloppy penmanship reading: "PLAY ME!" Abby gulped. So far she didn't like where this was going.

Aaron sighed. "Here we go."

He opened the laptop, pressing the play button on the options. The video started out shaky in a brightly lit room with a series of giggles in the background. Abby cringed when the camera spun around to face the Joker.

He smiled gleefully into the camera. "I'm happy to see some of you are playing the game fairly…but there are a couple of you who cheated."

The camera turned to the fear stricken Heather and T.J. Both were tied up by rope and had a bruise or two on their face. The image made Abby sick. _At least they're not bleeding._

The Joker continued to speak from behind the camera. "I found these two hiding where you should be now. They were _looking_ through the security cameras to see where my men were. If there's nothing I hate more, it's a cheater. From what I can tell though, you were all in on it. Isn't that right, Red?"

Heather didn't respond as if her bubbly personality ran away at the sight of the Joker. The Joker rushed over to Heather, grasping her neck.

"I said: isn't that right!" he yelled at her.

"She doesn't have to answer to you," T.J. sneered. The Joker's presence obviously didn't affect T.J.'s big mouth.

The camera faced T.J. "You really need to respect your superiors, young man."

"I do, but you're not one of them."

The Joker's gloved fist collided harshly with T.J.'s cheek. Abby's eyes widened as she watched T.J.'s mouth bleed upon impact. This was her fault. If she didn't go after her mother and listened to her father, none of this would have happened and now her friends were paying the price.

T.J. spit out some blood from his mouth. "That doesn't intimidate me."

"I'll deal with you later." The camera spun back to the Joker's face. "I'm going to give you two choices: leave now and I won't blow the mall up or come here, takes your friends' places and I still won't blow the mall up. This isn't an individual decision, by the way, it has to be made within the group you have. You have ten minutes to get here or leave."

The video ended there. Not one word was spoken for what seemed to be hours. Abby herself didn't know what to do. She could save herself or her friends. The choice seemed obvious yet she couldn't make up her mind.

Renee looked at Abby and Aaron incredulously. "Are you guys seriously thinking about this?"

None of them responded.

"The geek and the bubbly red-head are your friends," she pointed out to them. "I would think you two would be on your way up there now."

"It's not that simple, Kendal," said Aaron. "If we go up there, we'll end up where Heather and T.J. are. It'll do no good for anybody."

"So what? At least improvise and think of a way to save them instead of acting like cowards. Okay so, maybe your plan didn't work out so well. Boo who! Be the geniuses and save your friends."

"You have no idea how much I wish that was true, but that's not the way things work. I want to think of a way around this, more than anything in this world. But we've been there and done that, and now look where T.J. and Heather are. God knows what's going on in there."

"Aaron," said Abby. "We don't have much time now. Kendal is right; we need to get ourselves up there now if we don't want anything else to happen to Heather or T.J."

"If we go up there, the Joker will keep us all up there. It's a trap!"

"No, he won't. He said it himself: he's man of his word." Abby walked over to the door. "If you won't go then I'll do it myself."

"If you do it alone then, he'll back off his promise for sure."

She spun around to face Aaron. "Then don't just stand there and be selfless for at least five minutes."

"That's exactly what I'm doing!" he shouted. "I'm thinking about you here. His main intent is to get to you."

"No. His main intent is to get to Batman. Besides, don't let this be about me anymore. That's the exact argument I got into with my dad before I decided to storm off to the mall. We need to get up there or else I will never forgive myself…or you."

Her last statement must have hit Aaron hard. His expression of irritation quickly faded into an expression of hurt and surprised. Abby waited a few moments for him to consider the option.

Hours seemed to pass by when Aaron spoke again. "Fine. We're doing this for T.J. and Heather. But I will be there by your side whether the clown likes it or not."

The conditions Aaron presented were dangerous, but Abby had no choice. "Let's hurry then. The Joker isn't going to wait forever."

Renee sped past them before Abby could take another step. "Finally! It's about time you love birds agreed on something today!"

Ignoring Renee's statement, Abby followed behind Renee with Aaron by her side.

The mystery to find the security center was barely a mystery at all. Various signs were posted around the mall pointing the way to the center. Abby tried her best to keep a strong stance. Her friends' lives were at stake and a simple tremble could cost them their lives. Aaron seemed a bit agitated himself. He would constantly reach out for Abby's hand to make sure she was still there and ask if she was okay every fifteen seconds or so. Renee, on the other hand, was incomprehensible. She seemed more than ready to face the Joker yet her hands trembled every time she put them to her sides.

Sooner than Abby would have liked, they arrived at a door with sign reading, "Come in!" Abby was the first to open the door, but not without Aaron clenching her free arm. The door gave a loud creek as she slowly guided herself inside. She took every cautious step possible to further avoid the Joker.

"Ugh…no."

Abby's eyes flashed towards the source of the moan. Relief washed over her when she caught sight of T.J. and Heather sitting on the other side of the room, both with their hands tied behind their backs.

Abby sprinted towards them. "Oh God! Are you guys okay?"

Heather and T.J. shook their heads intensely.

"No, Abby—don't!" Heather screamed, but it was already too late.

A sudden force pushed Abby to the other side of the room. Groaning, Abby glanced up to find the Joker hovering over her.

"Glad to see you could make it, Princess," he cackled.

All of the bravery Abby once had suddenly disappeared. All of her muscles froze as the Joker smiled at her.

"Get away from her!" Aaron charged towards him.

Before Aaron could even make another stride forward, one of the Joker's men pulled him back.

With Aaron struggling against the goon's grip, the Joker marched up to Aaron. "You must be the Princess's beau. I've seen you two in plenty of photos together. Quite an interesting couple, if I may add…"

Aaron sneered. "Shut it! You're in no position to be saying anything about Abby and I."

The Joker smiled at Aaron. "Rebellious, I see. But that is to be expected of a cop's son." He waved his switchblade to Aaron's face. "We'll just have to fix that, won't we?"

Abby could see a repeat of the night before happen except it would be Aaron suffering the Joker's torture. Determination rose within her. She would not let that happen.

Abby rose to her feet. "Don't…please don't hurt him."

The Joker turned to her with a look of amusement. "What do you know? The Princess actually speaks."

"J-just don't hurt him," she pleaded. "We did as you asked. We're here to trade ourselves in."

"You seemed to have misunderstood me though." He began striding towards her. "When I said you in the video, I actually meant you personally, Princess."

"You mean I have to trade myself in for my friends' freedom?"

"Mhm."

Aaron furiously shook his head. "Don't do it, Abby! You can walk out now."

"You already know what my decision is going to be, Aaron," Abby stated. "It's my life versus all four of you."

"No—I won't let you do this."

She could barely face Aaron without swallowing hard. "Deep down, you know this is the right decision. You would do the same if you were standing right here."

"I love you. I don't want to let you go."

"I love you. That's why I have to let you go."

"Not that I don't appreciate the love scene," the Joker suddenly gripped Abby's neck, holding his switchblade against her stitches. "But we do need to get a move on. So here's the deal, Romeo: you untie friends, take the blonde with you and get yourself out of here or I can rip out your girlfriend's stitches."

Abby flinched back, surprised at the Joker's actions. She tried to manage a few words but she only let out a groan as a reaction to the Joker's death grip. The Joker's goons pushed Aaron to the ground.

"All right, kid, you've got five minutes," one of the goons stated, throwing a closed switchblade his way.

Aaron caught the knife, shortly glancing up at Abby. With her eyes, Abby pleaded Aaron to listen to the Joker. Aaron flipped the knife open, kneeling down towards the knot that bound Heather and T.J. to the floor. He fast but careful at slicing the rope (experience he had gained from his years as a Boy Scout). Heather and T.J. were soon free, but none of them spoke a word. Aaron held out both of his arms to provide support for their frightened friends. After a brief moment of hesitation, they took Aaron's arm and got up to their feet.

Like Aaron, Heather and T.J. exchanged wary glances with Abby. Abby attempted to appear strong, but that was the last thing she felt at the moment.

Renee broke the silence the room. "C'mon, we don't have that much time."

All of them simply stared at her, emotionless.

"If we don't leave anytime soon, he'll hurt her," Renee pressed as she moved to Aaron's side.

With one exchange of emotionless glances, all of them began to walk towards the door. Abby watched each step they took as if it would be the last she ever saw of them. She tried push back the negative thoughts, but with a mass murderer holding her against her will and the lack of hope there was to be rescued, it was hard to be optimistic at the moment. Her heart sank when her friends disappeared from her view. She was alone. She was alone with the Joker.

The Joker released Abby, chuckling. "That was surprisingly easy."

Abby didn't respond. But not because she was frightened of the monster.

"Oh, cat's got your tongue again?" he teased. "Well, I guess that's better than hearing you whine over your boyfriend and how _easy_ it was for him to leave you here."

"I asked him to leave and you threatened my life," she said, quietly. "He had no choice."

"Yes, he did. _Everyone _has a choice. You chose to come here today, you chose to play my game, you chose to take your friends' places, but most of all, you chose to run after your mother leading up to our meeting."

Abby shook her head. "No. That was because you pushed her out. I had to see if she was okay."

"But you could have stood there and we probably wouldn't be here now."

She bit her lip in irritation. "What do you want?"

"What do I want?" he laughed as if the question was ridiculous. "That's a question everyone wants to know!"

"What do you want with me?" Abby restated the question in between the Joker's mechanical laughs.

The Joker cupped Abby's face in his hands, beaming his yellow teeth at her. "You're a part of the plan, Sweetheart."

Her eyes widened. "Plan?"

"Mhm. I figured if Batman was willing risk his life for a helpless woman then he'll be sure to take off his mask for an innocent teenager."

Abby's heart began to race in a rapid pace. The Joker was right about the theory, that was for sure. But what the Joker failed to see (and thank God he did) was the connection between the infamous Batman and Abby. Bruce Wayne would come to life in Batman the moment he set eyes on Abby. He had said himself a year ago that it was difficult to act as a different persona when Abby was in danger. He would not only sacrifice his mask for her, but his life.

Abby couldn't let this happen. Gotham needed Batman and Abby needed Bruce.

"But why choose me?" she gulped.

"It sends a message. A message that demonstrates that anyone is capable of being a victim…especially Batman's little pet."

That's where Abby drew the line. Somehow someway the Joker knew of her previous relationship with Batman. Panic began to finally set in through the situation as she pulled away from the Joker's grip. She tried to transition into a run, but one of the Joker's goons blocked her way.

He grasped her wrists. "Where do you think you're going, little girl?"

Abby frowned at the name. "Bad day to call me names, man."

She brought herself closer to him, kicking her knee up to the appropriate height. The attack was enough to force him to let go of one of her wrists. With her free hand, she jabbed him in the stomach and quickly stroke her fist at his nose. A short sharp pain came to her palms when she realized that she still had cuts from the glass earlier. Before she could examine the damage, a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and lifted her off the ground.

"Playtime is over, kid," said a gruff voice.

With both of her legs, she stomped her feet into his stomach and then jabbed her elbow to his side. The goon lost his grip on her, causing Abby to plop to the ground. She tried to crawl towards the door, but a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders pulling her forcefully to her feet. Abby squirmed, but it was no use. She looked up to her captor and froze. Once again, the bravery she once had melted away at the sight of his Glasgow smile.

The Joker looked at her furiously. "That wasn't a very smar_t_ move, Princess. Although I admire your resilience, I don't like it when it's aimed towards me. Not. One. _Bit._" He flashed his switchblade in her face. "Maybe I should teach you a few manners before our Dark Knight comes to retrieve you."

Abby tried to move away from his knife, but he only brought her face closer to it.

"You know, this is why I don't want to have any children," he said. "They're too _defiant_. They never listen to what you have to say and will do what they feel like. I really hate it when they don't listen to me. I have a _very_ important meeting with the Batman so that I can pay my dues to the big men downstairs. If you escaped, everything would have been ruined."

"Y-you're being paid to do this?" Abby choked out.

He nodded. "If you're good at something, don't do it for free."

"What are you being paid to do?"

The Joker laughed hysterically. "Haven't you been pay attention? I need the Batman to take off his mask so I can get rid of him."

Abby wanted to cry, but resisted to do so in front of the Joker. She tried to look away, but as she attempted the act, the Joker made her face him.

He placed the cold blade against her cheeks. "You know, carving a smile on your pretty face isn't a part of the job description, but it's defiantly one of the benefits."

"Please." She gulped. "Don't."

"Don't what? Make you appear happier than you actually are? Don't worry, you'll thank me later."

"No…please."

"Just as much as I don't like cheaters, I don't like beggars for mercy. Now if you give me a pretty smile, I might reconsider."

Even though it was a struggle at first to move any of her muscles, her lips slowly formed into a forced smile. The Joker shook his head. He didn't approve.

"No, no, no," he said. "That smile is for your father's rich friends. I want one that shines to me. I want you to show me you're happy."

Abby tried to think of memories that made her smile. She tried to ignore that fact that she was only a knife away from receiving irremovable cuts on her face and that a _real_ smile was required. She suddenly thought of the time when Jared poured a pack of ice down Aaron's shirt. Aaron danced throughout the kitchen to get the ice out of his shirt. Abby laughed harder than she had since her father's disappearance at that point in time. Still no smile came to her lips. She then thought of the time when Bruce tried to cook dinner and ended up almost burning down Wayne Manor. Both of them fought over the fire extinguisher until it sprayed both of them. It was after that moment, Abby promised herself to give her father a chance of redemption.

At the bright memory, Abby finally smiled even adding a small laugh. The Joker gave her a small slap on the cheek.

"That's what I was looking for," he grinned. "It wasn't so hard, now was it? Now to make that smile permanent…"

Abby tried to pull away. "You said you wouldn't hurt me if—"

"I said I'd reconsider, Princess. I didn't say anything about changing my mind. Stay still and the pain will pass through quickly."

Abby could feel the knife already starting to pierce through her skin when a gruff voice interrupted the action.

"I wish I could say the same for you," it said.

In a flash, the Joker collapsed to the ground and the Dark Knight appeared in front of her. Before she could relish in the moment though, she felt blood trickle down her cheek. The Joker most likely left a cut on her cheek when Batman pushed him over.

The Joker got to his feet. "Glad to see you could make it, Bats. I was just keeping Gotham's heiress company until you finally decided to show up."

Batman punched the Joker in the nose. "Abby, get out of here! Your friends are waiting outside."

Abby didn't move. "What about the bomb?"

"I disabled it with one of your friend's help. Get out of here now or I'll make you get out of here."

The Joker laughed hysterically. "Oh, not so nice with your pets, are you?"

Abby automatically sprinted towards the door, but a force roughly pulled her back. Before she knew it, her back was against the Joker's chest and his arm was around her neck.

His hand gently stroked her hair. "If she's such a pest, I can take her off your hands and teach her a few manners."

Batman paused for a moment, careful with his emotions. "Leave her alone. She has nothing to do with this."

"That is where you are wrong. _Everyone _in Gotham has _everything_ to do with this. Our little princess just happens to be a part of the little arrangement I have planned."

"Let her go."

"Hmm…okay."

The Joker pushed Abby away from him. She stumbled on her feet until Batman caught her. Abby looked at the Joker in shock. Was it really that easy? Then she heard the rushed voices of police officers and she understood: the Joker wanted time to get away.

He began to stride out of the room. "She's yours for now, but you know what they say, 'Finders, Keepers!' So if I find her, you know what happens next."

Abby watched as the Joker walked out of the room and flinched when she heard gunshots ring from the distance.

"Are you okay?"

She glanced up at Batman who no longer appeared to be emotionless and fierce, but stared down at her with compassion and frustration. With one look into his brown eyes, she began to cry falling into his chest.

Batman held her close. "It's okay. Everything's going to be okay. The nightmare is over."

"Why do I get the feeling that this isn't halfway through the nightmare?" she choked out in between her sobs.

Batman didn't respond to that. By the time Abby looked back up at him, a hoard of footsteps rushed towards them. She glanced back to see Lieutenant Gordon lowering his gun with a dark haired woman by his side.

"Where is he?" Gordon demanded.

"He got away," Batman informed. "It was either chasing after him and giving him another chance to hurt her or letting him go to fight him another day."

The dark haired woman wasn't having any of it. "Are you serious? He could be out there now targeting his next victim!"

"Detective!" Gordon glared at the woman and returned his gaze back to Abby. "What about her?"

Batman gently helped Abby to her feet. "The Joker was using her as a tool to get me here. She's fine. A cut to her cheek and a few cuts on her hands, but that's about it." After a moment's pause, he let go of Abby. "I'd take her to the paramedics just in case."

Gordon nodded as he faced Abby. "Are you all right?"

"I-I'm n-not sure," she stuttered. Abby looked down to her hands to see that they were involuntarily shaking. "I-I'm going to be fine—I think."

The lieutenant took off his coat and placed it on Abby's shoulders. "Shhh…We should get you to the paramedics and call your parents. They'll come and get you."

Abby looked back to glance back at Batman, but he just as fast as he came, he disappeared. Gordon put a comforting arm around her shoulder and guided her out of the room.

Abby avoided the floods of flashing lights as the paramedic examined her condition. With Gordon's coat still wrapped around her shoulders, she sat at the edge of the ambulance in front of the mall.

The paramedic shined at flash light in her eyes. "Okay…everything looks good. Just make sure those stitches stay in place, keep your hands wrapped, apply the ointment to your wounds, and everything should return back to normal in a few weeks."

Abby nodded. "Thank you."

"Take care of yourself now. I'll go check you out and then you can go home."

Abby gave another nod as he left. The wounds would go away yes, but the memories of that day would stay clear in her mind. Her hands had stopped shaking shortly after the paramedic examined her yet she was shaking on the inside.

"Abby!"

She glanced up to see Aaron rushing toward her. He embraced her before she could answer back.

"Thank God, you're okay," he said. "Just for a few minutes, I thought you were gone but you're here. Are you okay?"

Abby gave a weak smile. "I could be better. How are you?"

"I've been worried sick about you, but I could definitely do better."

"Where's Heather and T.J.?"

"T.J.'s grandpa took him home and Heather's parents took her home."

"How did the police get here? How did they know?"

Aaron sighed. "The Joker posted a video about blowing up the mall and taking one of the hostages away if Batman didn't show up. He tricked all of us, Abs. He was planning for us to conspire against him and for you to give in."

"No." I shook my head. "He _knew_ I would do that. He doesn't plan anything; he just knows."

"And knew Batman would come after you. Are you sure haven't had a contact with him recently?"

"I'm sure, Aaron. I don't want to talk about it anymore so can we please just forget about it?"

Aaron opened his mouth to argue more with the issue, but someone chimed in.

Renee cautiously approached them. "Wayne?"

"Kendall." Abby faced Aaron. "Could you give us a minute?"

"Sure, I have to head home anyway. I'll call you tomorrow morning."

"Okay. Goodnight."

Aaron stormed off without another word. She was sure to get a mouthful out of him the next morning. Sometimes she wished he wasn't so stubborn…

Abby faced Renee again. "So…how's it going?"

"It could be better."

"Seems like that's everyone's answer tonight."

"Well, what did you expect?" she shrugged. "A murderous clown comes into a public mall and threatens the life of Gotham's heiress…not to mention making shoppers pee in their pants who will probably need therapy now. Heck, I'll probably need therapy."

"You and me both. Are your parents here already?"

"Yeah, but I kinda wanted to say something to you before I go."

Abby rolled her eyes. "Please, if you want to mock how I look or how I dealt with the situation then you can just put in a text because I'm getting really tired of hearing it."

"Actually, I just wanted to say thanks. You could have left me with the dogs, but you decided to let me in instead. I'm not sure what would have happened if you didn't."

She blinked her eyes a couple times. Did Renee Kendal just say _thank you_ to her? Those two words never escaped either of their mouths ever since their first encounter in pre-school.

"You're welcome," Abby replied blankly.

Renee returned back to her mischievous voice. "Well I'd better go. I've a hair appointment to wake up for tomorrow morning. I guess I'll see you around school."

"Yeah…see you."

"Oh, and you better watch out for your boyfriend there. He's seems to be a bit on edge these days—especially with you."

With that, Renee left the scene with a large man in a suit who Abby assumed was Renee's father. This was definitely a day filled with surprises.

"Abby, thank God!"

Before Abby could look over her shoulder, two arms wrapped around her causing her to flinch in surprise. According to the tight grip, Abby could only guess who it was.

"Mom…can't breathe…too tight," Abby gasped out.

Rachel released Abby, stroking her face. "I'm sorry. It's just when I saw the news today and got a call from your father, I had to assume the worse. Did he hurt you? Because I swear—!"

"Relax, I'm fine," she tried to reassure.

Abby clearly remembered having a very similar conversation with Rachel the year before, but this time Rachel was in plain sight and was ready to squeeze her until she was thirty.

Rachel didn't buy a word of Abby's reassurance. "No, you're not! Look at your cheek for crying out loud! Not to mention, you already had stitches on your neck given to you by the same maniac."

"I know it looks bad, but I'm fine really. The paramedic said it would heal up as long as I treated it."

"And you better. I don't want my daughter looking like she walked away from war at age fifteen."

"It felt like it was a war." Abby glanced down at her bandaged hands. "Before today, I thought I could never feel the same fear I did the night Ra's attacked Gotham. But now, I felt that fear again and to a new level as well."

Rachel gently moved Abby's face up to face her mother. "We'll get him, okay? I will hunt down this man myself if I have to. I don't want you to ever feel like you're in constant danger."

Abby only responded with a nod. They pulled into an embrace for a few moments until a familiar voice appeared beside them.

"I talked to the paramedics," he said. "They said Abby is free to go since you're here."

Rachel turned to face Dent. "Thanks."

"Where's dad?" Abby asked, almost in desperation.

"I don't know. He said he was on his way when I called him, but I don't know when he'll get here. Do you want to wait for him?"

She sighed. "I'm not sure."

Abby's rage had died down as the day went on, but she was still frustrated with Bruce. He was only acting out of fear and not of logic. At least it proved he was still human.

Then as if on cue, Abby saw Bruce in the distance. He marched up to Abby embracing her as many others did that night. This embrace, though, was the one she was craving for.

"Don't ever do that again," he hissed in her ear.

"I'm sorry," she said, on the verge of tears.

"Shh, it's okay. I'm here."

They soon separated as Bruce kept his gaze on Abby. Once again, Abby had a hard time configuring his emotion at the moment. It was between extreme concern and extreme rage for what happened.

"Bruce," Rachel piped up. "We need to talk about where she's going to go now."

"What do you mean? She's staying with me this month." Bruce crossed his arms.

"I'm concerned about her staying at the penthouse—especially tonight. He could try get in again."

"The security system's been updated. She'll still be safe with me."

"I still don't know. The Joker thinks she's staying with you so if she stays with me tonight then she'll be safer."

"He knew Abby was coming to the mall today. So what's stopping him from figuring out where she goes next?" Bruce didn't bother to hide his frustration.

"Then where do you suggest she goes, Bruce? We can't exactly ship her out of the city tonight."

"We'd have to make preparations for that, but this isn't the time."

Abby perked up. "Wait, I don't want to move from Gotham. I can't just leave with everything going on here."

Her parents only stared at her. It was clear the idea had crossed both of their minds and nothing Abby said would make a difference.

Dent broke the silence. "I can let her stay at my place tonight if that helps the situation."

Great, Abby where this was going. Whenever the mom's boyfriend tried to be nice to her child, the father would throw a fit. And that's exactly what happened.

"You're on the Joker's hit list," Bruce glared. "I'm not going to let my daughter stay in that environment."

"No, I have an apartment that I use whenever my family comes to visit. Rachel and Abby are welcome to stay there tonight."

"Are you sure no one knows where this is at?" Rachel asked Dent.

"I'm sure. I rented it under a different name and everything. Abby will be safe there."

Abby gave a sigh of frustration. "Why do I suddenly feel like I'm the damsel in distress here?"

"I know all of this seems like it's going too fast, but you have to know that your father and I are doing this to protect you," Rachel said to Abby.

"You're really agreeing to this?" Bruce asked Rachel incredulously.

"I have to. If anything happened to her again…I'm not sure what I would do. For now, I think it's better if she stays away from you."

Abby looked at Rachel awestruck by her words. Abby knew Rachel meant Bruce's Batman persona but she didn't realize that Rachel would easily take Abby away from that if the time called for it.

"Mom, it's okay. I can stick it out for a night," she nearly begged her mother.

Rachel shook her head. "No. You're coming with Harvey and I whether you like it or not."

Abby opened her mouth to argue once more, but Bruce interrupted her. "Abby, it's okay. You need to go with your mother. I'll be fine."

"But Dad…" Abby tried to find the words but none came out. The idea was logical yet her heart was torn as to which parent she should go with. She loved Bruce and Rachel equally as any daughter should. Why was she left with this decision?

"It's for the best, Abby," Bruce tried to console. "We won't be a part for long. I promise."

With that, Abby nodded her head. "Okay. I'll go with you, Mom."

"Let's get going then," said Rachel. "I'd rather not deal with the reporters for long."

"I know a back route we can take so that we won't have to deal with them," Dent mentioned. "But we'd have to go now while my publicist is distracting them."

Abby carefully lowered herself to the ground from the edge of the ambulance with Rachel and Dent's aid. She looked back at Bruce. She wanted nothing more than to hug him one more time, but her mother urged her to go forward.

"Bye Dad." Was all Abby could say to Bruce.

Bruce gave a weak smile. "Goodnight, Abby. I love you."

Rachel urged Abby forward once more. "Let's go, Sweetie."

Abby silently obeyed as she broke eye contact with Bruce. Rachel held her close as if she would run off at any given time. She didn't though. Abby was tired of running and decided to give in to the situation instead. She knew she would see Bruce again, but Abby still held that eerie feeling within her. The nightmare wasn't even halfway over. Anyone could see that. Her only hope now was for everyone she loved and cared about to escape from the nightmare with their sanity. Abby hoped the same thing for herself, but they were only hopes therefore they had the ability to be crushed.

* * *

Thanks for reading! I am extremely sorry for going on hiatus for so long. Life interupted everything and well I'm pretty sure you know the rest. I have the next chapter half-way done now so hopefully it'll be done soon. Anyway I have a Twitter account now, so if you want to follow me you can (the link is in my profile). Also, I plan to make a YouTube video of myself answering questions that you may have. It would be helpful if you sent the questions by private messaging me or if you're not a member you can leave it in a review. They can be anything about my stories or my writing or me in general (nothing too personal please). I will also give a couple of announcements on two stories I've been writing lately (one is a fanfic, the other is an original story). Thank you all for your patience and until next time!

~Emyrox567


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